Pennsylvania Gets Its First Bitcoin ATM
At 6:00 PM EST 11/14/14, Bitcoin ATM service Coin Outlet will officially open a Bitcoin ATM to the public at Four54 Grill in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This is the first Bitcoin ATM in Pennsylvania. Coin Outlet CEO Eric Grill will be in attendance to showcase the new ATM and help people use it. Leigh Menkes, owner of Four54 Grill, pronounced that everyone should “come down to the best burger joint in town on Friday, and bring your Bitcoin wallet!”
You can head out to the event tonight; it will be held at 6 PM EST at Four54 Grill, 454 New Holland Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17602. The ATMs are two-way, meaning that you can either buy or sell Bitcoin with them. At the event, Four54 Grill will be accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment, however it is unclear whether or not they will continue to do so in the future.
The Expansion of Bitcoin ATMs
Bitcoin ATMs are being introduced all over the country– there are ATMs in Colorado, California, Texas, New York, and many other states. Pennsylvania is one of the last states in the East Coast to get an ATM, as many states already have at least one. Bitcoin ATMs are vital for the adoption of Bitcoin. For many, buying bitcoins over the internet isn’t a feasible task, whether it’s because it’s illegal where they live, they may only have cash (rather than a credit card, PayPal, or other method of owning digital money), or because they don’t have the technological capability to do so. ATMs could become the easiest way to obtain Bitcoin in the near future; in just a few years, you could walk to your corner store and buy a bitcoin or two.
Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania with a population of more than 1.5 million, will just have to wait for its first ATM. Besides Houston, Philadelphia is the largest city in the United States to not have a Bitcoin ATM. About two dozen stores in Philadelphia accept Bitcoin, and at the Philly Bitcoin Meetup that I attend, we all discuss and look forward to the first Bitcoin ATM in Philly weekly.
CoinOutlet also recently sponsored the first-ever “Bitcoin wedding” in which the bride and groom recorded a message on the public block chain: “For better or worse, ’til death do us part, because the blockchain is forever”. The wedding took place on October 5th at the Disney World Coins in the Kingdom Bitcoin Conference.
This Bitcoin ATM in Lancaster is the first of what will hopefully soon be many in Pennsylvania. Bitcoin ATMs will soon be in every major city in the United States. However, the law is holding many of them back. There is currently unclarity on the legal status of Bitcoin ATMs, as most require documentation and licenses from the government. Not only is the legality of owning and operating a Bitcoin ATM is unclear, but it could change at any time.
What do you think about this new Bitcoin ATM in Pennsylvania? Let us know in the comments below!
Image of Coin Outlet ATMs from CoinOutletAtm.com ; other images from Shutterstock.
