Deloitte launched its first bitcoin ATM to the public yesterday at its office in Toronto, where its Rubix blockchain division is based, in a bid to take employees back to the basics of cryptocurrency technology.The Big Four accounting firm unveiled the terminal to employees on Tuesday, before opening its doors for public use on Wednesday.​The bitcoin transaction machine (BTM) was made by Canadian firm Bitaccess and can exchange digital currency for up to 1,000 bills in local dollars and several other currencies.Our BTM is now open to the public./X6wBgLZ0IT— Rubix by Deloitte (@RubixByDeloitte) September 7, 2016 Read more: These big banks are working on a digital currency together Although blockchain is now being applied to everything from tracking tuna to public health services, the use of a shared ledger that continuously records transactions or information first gained notoriety in 2008 and 2009 when bitcoin was launched.By bringing bitcoin back to its blockchain lab, Deloitte hopes the "hands-on" access to the currency will in turn boost the company's engagement with the technology.

"We see this as being an important milestone for us as an organisation.It's a move to improve accessibility and hands-on learning as [a] first step toward greater blockchain adoption," Deloitte's Rubix strategy director, Iliana Oris Valiente, told CoinDesk.Deloitte has been a vocal supporter of blockchain and, though its Rubix team is based in Canada, it works on enterprise blockchain applications with global clients.​ Read more: Will bitcoin ever be more than an alternative asset?Last year, Deloitte's report "Bitcoin at the crossroads" claimed the cryptocurrency does not need to be regulated yet.It compared bitcoin to other technologies like the telephone and the internet, which we both given decades to mature before being subject to tighter regulation.There are 110 bitcoin ATMs in Canada and more than 30 across the UK, according to Coin ATM Radar.Within weeks of Nasreen Mohsin moving to Vancouver in September to start a master’s of engineering at Simon Fraser University, one of her friends back home in India had an emergency.

Mohsin won’t divulge the specifics, but her friend needed 6,000 rupees, or about $120—and fast.One option was to use a traditional money-transfer service, like Western Union, but her friend recommended they make the transfer via Bitcoin.Not only would it be fast, but the fees would be next to nothing.Bitcoin is a global currency that only exists digitally.What’s the central authority or bank that controls it?For the layperson, Bitcoin is useful as a way to transfer money from point A to point B—so long as both places have access to the Internet—with no need to go through a bank and, therefore, incurring virtually no transaction fees.Fortunately for Mohsin, getting her hands on the digital currency was extremely convenient.“The nearest [Bitcoin] ATM was at SFU,” Mohsin says.In May, Simon Fraser became the first Canadian post-secondary institution to install automated Bitcoin vending machines (known as AVMs) at bookstores campus-wide.“A student could use a Bitcoin to buy a book,” says Mark McLaughlin, the university’s executive director of ancillary services.

“The plan is to eventually roll it out to our dining hall.” Mohsin doesn’t plan to use Bitcoin to buy books, but she’s grateful it was there to help her friend back home.Mohsin deposited $120 into the AVM machine, scanned the QR code on her cellphone and received about one-third of a Bitcoin in her virtual wallet.ethereal gem youtube(The exchange rate fluctuates—one Bitcoin is now worth about $355.)coin roll bitcoinShe transferred the Bitcoin to her friend’s virtual wallet, a process that’s as easy as sending an email.bitcointalk walletWithin about 20 seconds, the transaction was done, and her friend converted the Bitcoin to 6,000 rupees.choi bitcoin

The university wouldn’t say how many digital transactions have come through the machines or how much Bitcoin has been bought.“It’s a small percentage of the student population [that’s using it], but at least some people are,” McLaughlin says.mua ban bitcoin ? dauFor most students, using Bitcoin to buy books is a novelty.ajouter bitcoinBut there’s incentive for the school.bitcoin wien“Essentially, SFU is not paying any transaction fees when they accept Bitcoin,” says Mike Yeung, founder of the SFU Bitcoin Club.bitcoin atm stockVisa and MasterCard, for example, charge retailers up to 1.5 per cent of the value of each sale.azure bitcoin mining

With about 30,000 students at SFU and an average semester’s worth of books and supplies for an undergraduate costing $1,020, according to university figures, “that can add up to be pretty substantial over time,” Yeung adds.McLaughlin says the school didn’t adopt Bitcoin because of financial incentives.Rather, there were two objectives in accepting the digital currency at bookstores at each of the three campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.First, it started a dialogue on campus about disruptive technologies.Second, students could learn about Bitcoin (as could staff, for that matter).The project also inspired some entrepreneurial philanthropy, such as when the SFU Bitcoin Club lobbied the university to accept donations via Bitcoin in August 2014.Yeung and SFU alum Scott Nelson donated 10 Bitcoins, equivalent to nearly $6,000 at the time.Why not donate using Canadian dollars?“Bitcoin is what I have,” says Nelson, an information technologist and a believer in cryptocurrency since he started using Bitcoin in tech startups about four years ago.