The UK’s first Bitcoin ATM has been installed in the trendy East London district of Shoreditch.
The ATM, made by Lamassu and operated by Future Coins, was installed in the Old Shoreditch Station café on 4 March. The café also accepts Bitcoin payments and has done since last year.
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The machine itself consists of a Google Nexus 7 tablet running a bespoke app and attached to a safe with a cash counter and a QR scanner and is not strictly an ATM, as it sells Bitcoin in exchange for sterling notes.
Customers scan the QR code of their Bitcoin mobile wallet, insert money and the funds are transferred. The machine currently charges a commission of 8%, which Future Coin director Joel Raziel hopes to reduce after updating the machine’s software.
To protect against money laundering and other criminal activity there is currently a £1,000 ($1,676) limit on deposits made by customers as well as CCTV cameras.
According to Raziel, the machine had already had around 50 customers by the afternoon of 5 March, only a day after it was installed.
One customer even travelled 200 miles from Manchester to use the machine.
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