South Korean Bank ATMs Will Soon Receive Bitcoin Support

Bringing Bitcoin to the masses is not as easy as most of us would like. Especially when it comes to allowing consumers to buy cryptocurrency, there is still a lot of work to be done. Thanks to a new partnership between Nautilus Hyosung and Just Cash, a lot of regular ATMs may soon receive Bitcoin support. It’s an interesting option worth exploring, as mainstream consumers still remain on the fence when it comes to Bitcoin.

Buying Bitcoin With Regular ATMs?

It sounds a bit strange to walk up to a typical bank ATM and see an option to buy Bitcoin. Although that may not happen on a meaningful scale in the near future, the new partnership between Nautilus Hyosung and Just Cash heralds some major changes regardless. It is important to note this will not necessarily be a global rollout, as it seems this feature will be limited to South Korea for the time being. Being able to transact Bitcoin using regular ATMs will certainly be convenient.

As one would expect, this will work quite similarly to traditional ATM transactions. In most countries, people can use ATMs to deposit, withdraw, and even send money to other people if needed. They are a valuable addition to regular bank clerks, although they may end up costing a lot of jobs in the process. The goal is to create a new cryptocurrency transfer ecosystem which mainly relies on QR code scanning. As most people are well aware, Bitcoin has relied on QR code-based transactions in the real world for some time now.

Although this service will mainly focus on Bitcoin for the time being, there are plans on the table to add support for altcoins as well. Right now, it remains unclear which currencies may be on that list, but the first priority is ensuring everything works well with the Bitcoin-related transfers. Considering that there are over 8,000 active ATMs to be modified in South Korea, it will likely take a while until the team gets around to integrating altcoins.

With these modified ATMs, people will be able to have funds dispensed to their wallets using a QR code. The machines will also present users with a receipt containing transaction details as well as the public and private keys associated with the transaction. This latter feature may not be the most secure solution, but it remains to be seen if this will be a mandatory or optional feature. It is a paper wallet receipt first and foremost, but it seems logical to assume that existing wallets would be supported as well.

Upgrading ATMs to support Bitcoin is a very ambitious project, to say the very least. At the same time, no one can deny this change is beneficial. Making Bitcoin more mainstream – especially as the price keeps going up every week – is a top priority. While this South Korean partnership may not necessarily yield major dividends, it sets an intriguing precedent for the rest of the world to follow. Whether or not other companies will follow this trend remains to be seen.

In the end, it is good to see some more competition in the ATM industry. Dedicated Bitcoin ATMs have been around for some time now, yet most of them have not been overly successful. People aren’t always willing to go out of their way to buy Bitcoin from an ATM. Integrating this functionality into regular bank ATMs will certainly pique people’s interest. It may not lead to increased adoption overnight, but this venture may yield some surprising results over time.