Bitcoin Kiosks Coming To 5 Canadian Cities 121
dreamstateseven writes "Canadian Bitcoin enthusiasts will be able to exchange Canadian cash for the digital currency through a kiosk that's similar to an ATM. Bitcoiniacs says it has ordered five Bitcoin kiosks from a Las Vegas-based company called RoboCoin and intends to roll them out across Canada in the coming months, with the first machine expected to land in Vancouver in early October. The kiosks allow users to select how much money they would like to spend, insert cash into the machine and then scan a QR code on their phone to transfer the Bitcoins to their wallet."
Much like Gold (Score:1, Funny)
Gold, that wonderful investment that will save the world.
What, say that again? You will take my soon to be worthless cash for GOLD! You must be crazy. You yourself told me cash would soon be worthless and GOLD will save the planet from poverty.
Re:How about no? (Score:5, Funny)
This should be blocked by the government until Bitcoin is considered a legitimate currency, and therefore held to the same standards and regulations as an actual bank.
These guys should be charged with fraud for this crap. These are not "ATM" machines. What they give out is not an officially recognized currency. What they give out is not even a stable currency (I've seen Bitcoin halve, then double, then halve in value over the span of a few days), and there is NO INSURANCE through the government if the entire thing goes belly up (don't tell me that it won't- that's not the point, I'm insured through the Canadian Government who will cover a small amount of money if something happens to my bank).
The more I think about it, the more I think this is some seriously shady crap. You're basically trying to trick the public into buying into your currency and making them believe it's actually valuable for day-to-day use (it's not for 99% of the consumers). I mean, these machines sure as shit aren't going to have warning labels on the side that say "Hey, the market you're buying into could halve overnight, making your money worth half as much!". How many people actually using these machines are really going to know what they're getting into?
This should be blocked by the government until Bitcoin is considered a legitimate currency, and therefore held to the same standards and regulations as an actual bank.
You have mixed levels here. The "dollar" (Canadian or otherwise) does not count as a bank, and has no standards and regulations imposed directly on the currency itself.
Now, if you want to demand that money-handlers/lenders/changers/etc dealing in BTC live up to similar regulations to those dealing in "real" money, hey, I would agree with you in spirit - Aside from the fact that those dealing in BTC will have a great deal of difficulty complying with AML regulations by design.
But you should at least strive to make a coherent argument, rather than something as absurd as "all cows must get SafeServ certified".
Re:BitCoins to cash (Score:5, Funny)
*Or whatever their currency is called.
Close. You were thinking of the fleury. Following the paper dollar notes being dropped from circulation in 1987, the public backlash led to derisive nick-names like "loony" for the new coins. This was resolved by renaming the currency by a popular vote on 26 May, 1989. Under the new system, 100 fleurys = 1 gretzky.