OH WOW! FIRST BITCOIN VENDING MACHINES APPEAR IN MALAYSIA

The first vending machines for the increasingly popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has appeared in Malaysia. Singapore-based Numoni Pte Ltd has installed two Auto Vending Machines (AVM) in Bangsar Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur and Gurney Plaza in Penang last weekend.

The new AVMs were installed after Numoni announced the Bitcoin AVM in Spain last month. The company also installed four AVMs in its native island state. Interestingly, the company is looking to install another eight AVMs for a total of ten Bitcoin AVMs this year, and a total of 100 over the next three years.

“Numoni is especially pleased to launch our machines in Malaysia as the machines are assembled in Malaysia in our Senai factory. The machine was fully developed by Numoni in Singapore since 2012,” said Numoni CEO Norma Sit.

These Bitcoin AVMs work by reading a Bitcoin owner’s unique QR code, and accepts 22 physical currencies to purchase the cryptocurrency. These AVMs are also fully secured with banking security. The AVM will show the current exchange price of Bitcoins in real-time, and then forwards the user’s purchase request to the Bitcoin Exchange. Numoni states that the transaction can be completed within one minute. The Bitcoins are then dispensed as vouchers, presumably to circumvent the Bank Negara Malaysia statement in January that Bitcoins are not recognized as legal tender in the country.

The installations of the new Bitcoin AVMs come the weekend before the commencement of the World Bitcoin Conference that is happening this week.

(Source: The Malaysian Insider, Numoni)

(Featured Image: The Star)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOOK VENDING MACHINE

There are lots of reasons why a white elephant technology doesn’t catch on. Sometimes the technology is ahead of its time. In other cases, no amount of time can make a misguided technology useful or attractive. Then there’s vending machines that sell books. The first book-dispensing vending machine was built by Richard Carlile in England in 1822. Carlile was a bookseller who wanted to sell seditious works like Paine’s Age of Reason without being thrown in jail. His answer was a self service machine that allowed customers to buy questionable books without ever coming into contact with Carlile. The customer turned a dial on the devise to the publication he wanted, deposited his money, and the material dropped down in front of him. It’s unclear whether this was an automated process, but that didn’t stop England’s own automated process from convicting one of Carlile’s employees for selling “blasphemous material.” The Penguincubator The next book-dispensin...

TOURISTS SPENT RM82 BIL. LAST YEAR IN MALAYSIA – How Much Of This Went To Online Stores?

Nothing! Are Malaysian Online Sellers and Home Business Owners really getting what they and their products are worth? According to the Tourism Malaysia ’s website, some RM82.1 billion was spent on retail goods by tourists last year, and this is the highest spend since 2006. But how can online sellers access this huge cash bank that is just ready to be spent on something, anything, in Malaysia ? There are many unique products that Malaysians make that would be great as souvenirs for our foreign visitors to take back, but unfortunately there is no way for an online seller to reach the tourist market. It would be difficult for any Online Store or Marketplace to sell to tourists because they are only here for a few days, and within this few days they shall travel all over Malaysia, so they cannot afford the time of the two or three days wait for their products to arrive, and if there is anything wrong with the order or product, the tourists will be ...

MALAYSIANS ARE THE BIGGEST SUCKERS FOR ONLINE SCAMS

KUALA LUMPUR: A survey by telecommunication company Telenor Group has revealed how gullible Malaysians are on the Internet. With at least 46 per cent of respondents from this country having admitted to being a victim of Internet scams, Malaysia leads among the countries surveyed which included India, Singapore and Thailand. The study found that one in five Malaysians had been victims of both Internet auction scams and online dating scams. A quarter of Malaysians have experienced Internet auction fraud, The largest percentage of Malaysian scam victims however have fallen for the ‘work from home’ fraud, a scam whereby users are tricked into paying someone online to help them start a business or undertake work but end up not receiving any payment. One in 10 users in Malaysia also reported that their Facebook accounts had been hacked in the past. The multi-market survey assessed 400 Internet users aged 18 to 65 in Malaysia, India, Singapore and Thailand and was...

Social Network Merchandise