Now in Canada, customers can purchase bitcoins from 6000 stores with a debit card or cash.
They will receive a voucher for their bitcoins in $10, $30, $50, $100 or $250 denominations, Canadian money. Customers are limited to $250 worth of bitcoins per day. The vouchers act as gift cards, with the bitcoins becoming available within a minute of purchase.
While purchases can be made with cash, and therefore anonymously, a BitAccess account is required to redeem the bitcoin purchase. Like a gift card, customers must type in the code from their voucher to the site.
This is a great way to make secure online purchases. Simply pay cash for the bitcoins then use them online without fear of getting hacked and your identity or credit card stolen.
The vouchers are free to use, so the value stays pretty much intact. There are a couple of penalties: if you don’t use the voucher within a month, you are charged with $4 or requesting a refund after two weeks gets a fee of $30.
There are many locations available to buy bitcoins. The 6000 locations range from gas stations to grocery stores to bars and campus bookstores. A store locator is available to find the nearest location where you can purchase bitcoins. Larger cities have more locations.
In February, Decentral announced a similar program called Simple Coin Card, to sell bitcoins as gift cards across Canada. The bitcoins are redeemed the same way and can be purchased in denominations of $20, $50 or $100. It is expected that these will be everywhere in Canada by summer.
In Asia, this kind of thing has already taken off. OkBitCard has 24000 locations in Southeast Asia. Bitcoin vouchers can also be found in Taiwan at 5000 convenience store locations. Even Turkey has 300 locations to buy the BitUp card.
The US is a bit behind, with only one company working on selling bitcoins this way, Liberty X. You can purchase bitcoins in over 19000 stores, but it goes through a phone app instead of cards or vouchers. This is not anonymous either, as identification is needed to purchase bitcoins. This technology is a fast, convenient way of buying bitcoins and seems to be growing steadily.
header img via notable.ca
