After huge fanfare and appreciation from across the country when the first Bitcoin ATM was installed in New Zealand, the operators of the machine have finally decided to shut the operation. They informed in the official website that unfortunately, despite complying with all the legal requirements they have been unable to secure banking facilities.
The operators say that without these the Bitcoin ATM business cannot operate long term. There were some other troubles as well for the operators as according to them the negativity from the banking sector to Bitcoin also threatens the ATM owner’s other businesses and for that reason it is prudent for them to shut the ATM down.
However, the operators admit that if someone has any interest in purchasing a second-hand Bitcoin ATM with compliance documents, they are willing to sell it. The untimely demise of NZ’s first true Bitcoin ATM that used to offer two-way sales and purchases of Bitcoin is going to disappoint a lot of Bitcoiners in the country.
When it was launched on June 3rd, 2014, the Bitcoin ATM gave a lot of hope for Bitcoin community in New Zealand and everyone thought it was a great leap towards the acceptance of the digital currency.
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Unable to Get Banking Partner
The company became the first ever BTC ATM operator in New Zealand after it got supplies from the Nevada based company Robocoin; however, as the time progressed it started facing a lot of problems. Robocoin is the same company that installed the first Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October 2013 and that is still operating successfully.
The BTC ATM from Robocoin is not the cheapest ATM and when the operators in New Zealand imported it, they made sure that they comply with NZ laws on its use. Also, as it has been seen, various other operators around the world have Robocoin BTC ATMs and they are not facing any trouble at all. However, this is first of its sort to see the operators facing trouble.
From the outset it looks as though the operator was unable to secure a banking partner, an issue many Bitcoin start-ups have been dealing with. They even tried their best to make sure that they comply with NZ laws on how to operate a BTC ATM; however, the entire effort on the part of the company does not seem to be sufficient to get a banking partner.
To contact the reporter of this story: Deepak Tiwari at deepak@forexminute.com
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