How You May Be Able To Get Bitcoin At Your Local Supermarket
The average person hits the grocery store for food staples, possibly even a lottery ticket, or two. But, these days it's also possible to walk out with a receipt for cryptocurrency in your wallet.
Cryptocurrency is an exciting investment opportunity for those next gen-style thinkers. A totally digital version of currency, it's not managed or controlled by a government or other authority, so to speak, says Forbes. However, it's very volatile, and the value of cryptocurrency tends to fluctuate all over the place in a manner not typical of the average dollar or bond. This can make it a riskier proposition, and a lot of people aren't willing to take that chance.
That said, many people are probably up for investing the cash from their car's cup holder or the couch cushions in crypto. Per Fortune, this is where the Coinstar machine at your local grocery retailer comes into play.
New cryptocurrencies at the Coinstar kiosk
Back in the day, people would show up at the Coinstar kiosk with a bag of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, then watch the machine spit out cold hard cash, in return. Now, many Coinstar users opt instead to get crypto instead of plain money.
According to Fortune, from 2019 until now, the only cryptocurrency available at Coinstar kiosks was Bitcoin. It was the very first digital asset, and launched in 2009, says CoinDesk. Now, Coinstar is meeting customer requests to exchange cash for other types of cryptocurrency, including Dogecoin, Chainlink, Ethereum, Lumens, Polygon, and Litecoin.
Although the Coinstar experience is largely user-friendly, customers should be prepared to upload a photo of their driver's license, as well as a selfie, in order to establish a Coinme wallet. This is called a "Know Your Customer" verification. The kiosk will spit out a voucher receipt, and it can be redeemed using Coinme (on the website or the app). That's taking cyber-shopping to a whole new level.