The first ATM converting dollars into Ethereum cryptocurrency in addition to bitcoins has appeared in San Mateo, California. It became possible because the Ethereum team modified the code of the Lamassu system.

The bitcoin and ether ATM is located at the co-working space Hero City at Draper University, which was founded in the Silicon Valley by the renowned bitcoin entrepreneur Tim Draper.

Ether.camp team has shown that the open-source code of the bitcoin machines can be further developed to build in various blockchain solutions, including smart contracts, among all. So far, it is the first case when a bitcoin ATM has been remodelled to support ether as well. The ether conversion works the same way as bitcoin does – you need a QR code to make transactions. A video has been published on the ether.camp blog to demonstrate how to purchase ethers with cash using the ATM.

The decentralised smart contracts blockchain-based platform Ethereum created by Vitalik Buterin has been attracting quite a lot of attention recently. The price of one ether increased 10% in dollar terms, says Finance Magnates, reaching $5.8 (or 0.013 BTC). With its overall market capitalisation of around $447 million, Ethereum is still lagging far behind bitcoin ($6.5 billion) but has cemented its second position in the cryptocurrency space. The European cryptocurrency exchange platform Anycoin Direct has added ether to its currencies list and the mining service HashFlare announced that it starts providing cloud mining hashrate for ether.

With the possible implementation of the ether cryptocurrency into the network of bitcoin ATMs, the Ethereum platform will get a chance to improve its infrastructure. Lamassu manufactures bitcoin ATMs and installs them globally with about 134 machines operating worldwide. The company was among the first ones to introduce bitcoin ATMs in 2013.

Sonya Belova