First Bitcoin ATMs to launch in Australia

It seems crypto-currency or virtual currency is becoming ever-more real with 100 Bitcoin ATMs to be rolled out across Australia from February to March this year.

The machines have been purchased by Australian Bitcoin ATMs. The launch of Australia’s first ever BitAccess ATM Bitcoin Machines will take place in Sydney and Melbourne this month, followed by Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide next month. The company will also launch its ATMs in Auckland and Hong Kong in March.

The ATMs will be the first time Australians will be able to withdraw real cash from their Bitcoin accounts and purchase bitcoins for cash. According to a spokesperson for Australian Bitcoin ATMs, there are no account or usage fees. Also, a bitcoin can be divided to 8 decimal places, so a user can purchase or sell fractions of a bitcoin(s).

"There will be a negligible spread on the price of bitcoin from the most liquid international exchanges. The bitcoin price our customer will receive is likely to be the best price that can be achieved compared to local online bitcoin offerings," said the spokesperson.

Chris Guzowski, Australian Bitcoin ATMs founding CEO, will manage the rollout of the ATMs.

Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Napster founder Sean Parker have all shown their support in Bitcoin currency and together have invested more than US$50 million in Bitcoin related businesses.

LegalVision, an Australian legal service provider, recently announced it would allow customers to pay for services using the crypto-currency.

However, there have been some issues with Bitcoin. Last year it had to issue refunds to people who saw their bitcoins stolen as a result of a weakness in its application.

Last month, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said it doesn’t consider crypto-currency to be real currency as it doesn’t have “the ultimate backstop that sovereign currencies have”.