Bitcoin now available at local stores
You can now pick up some bitcoin with that bottle of soda and bag of chips at the store down the street.
LibertyX, a company that originally made and operated bitcoin vending kiosks, has expanded to let any store sell bitcoin for cash at the register, just like anything else they have in stock.
“You hand over cash, you get a code,” said Kyle Powers, co-founder of LibertyX, formerly known as Liberty Teller. A cashier gives the customer a pin number, which can be redeemed for bitcoin. LibertyX is working with 2,500 stores, mostly local businesses including convenience and computer stores, across the country in the obvious places — Cambridge and San Francisco — and some less obvious, such as Lowell and Missoula, Mont.
The move away from dedicated ATMs that sell bitcoin came from overwhelming demand, Powers said.
“We had people driving for hours,” Powers said. “The whole thing was to reach areas that we couldn’t otherwise.”
The ATMs are still operational, including the one at South Station.
“We’re doing the same thing (as the ATMs), just cheaper, faster, more convenient,” Powers said.
To help LibertyX expand, the company has raised a little more than $400,000 in private investment. Project 11, the venture capital firm headed by Katie Rae, Reed Sturtevant and Bob Mason, formerly of TechStars Boston, led the investment.
Powers said much has been made of bitcoin’s ups and downs, but he continues to have faith in the online currency.
“Bitcoin is like gold, except the market is a thousand times younger” he said. “What we’re doing is a fundamental, foundational piece of the bitcoin ecosystem.”
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