Coinstar kiosks in grocery stores are where people get rid of their loose change to pay for groceries. Now, partnered with Coinme, it's also where you can buy Bitcoin.
"It's incredible how fast the adoption for digital currency has grown, faster than the internet, faster than cell phone adoption," said Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist.
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Bitcoin is a digital currency which exists in an global network of computer servers. It's not regulated by any central authority. Increasingly, it is accepted by retailers around the world as a global currency.
Some see it as the natural evolution of money. "Because you can send and receive it through any phone or any computer securely," said Bergquist.
Bergquist says 215 kiosks are coming online in North Carolina with several coming to Food Lion and Harris Teeter stores in the Triangle. Basically, the kiosks are the place where you can purchase Bitcoin.
"These are paper-cash transactions with a daily limit of up to $2,500," said Bergquist.
He says as the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar decreases, interest in digital currency increases. "There won't be a Fed (federal) or some central authority that says, Hey, let's print more money!"
Bergquist believes the concept of digital money stored in your own virtual wallet is catching on. Increased access in grocery stores could make it grow even faster.
Bergquist added, "Bitcoin (value) over the last 10 years has actually gone up and down but it has never gone down below the previous year's low." The long term view, he says, "There is growing global adoption on a fixed supply and the floor (base value) has continued to go up every year."
He added, Coinme has worked with North Carolina's commissioner of banks so they are a regulated, licensed and trusted financial institution.