Coinstar, the company behind the big machine in the back of your supermarket which converts all your loose change into notes have made an exciting announcement. Those same machines are going to start selling Bitcoin!

The news comes as part of a partnership with Coinme – a company which makes small cryptocurrency ATMs – and should come as great news for the entire cryptocurrency industry.

It was initially announced by the Coinstar CEO, Jim Gaherity, via an announcement which was reported by GeekWire. In which Jim stated:

“Coinstar is always looking for new ways to offer value to our consumers when they visit our kiosks, and Coinme’s innovative delivery mechanism along with Coinstar’s flexible platform makes it possible for consumers to easily purchase Bitcoin with cash”

The Coinstar company currently has over 20,000 machines worldwide with a significant portion of those in the USA. Coinme is not without its own share of machines in the USA, boasting ATMs in 11 states including Texas and California.

It should be noted that the machines will not provide you with the ability to trade cryptocurrencies on them. They will simply allow you to input cash for which you will receive a voucher to claim your Bitcoin on the Coinme website.

The machines are limited to $2,500 USD and you will need a phone number to attach to your transaction, possibly for verification.

As you can imagine, this is great news for the entire cryptocurrency industry as people who are changing their old coppers into cash are going to be more likely to be willing to take a punt on a bit of BTC in exchange for their old forgotten shiny metal coins.

At present it is not clear where the BTC enabled Coinstar machines are so, if you find one, please do tweet Something Decent to let us know!

Happiness.