Vending Machine In NYC Lets Anyone Buy An NFT With Their Credit Card
By Mikelle Leow, 23 Feb 2022
As much as non-fungible tokens have moved into the mainstream, they’re still pretty much seen as unattainable—a perception unhelped by the longwinded steps required to open a digital wallet and obtain cryptocurrency. At 29 John St in Manhattan, however, purchasing these digital tokens is as convenient as grabbing a snack or drink.
The standout brick-and-mortar unit in New York City allows passersby to pay for NFTs using fiat currency; specifically, they can buy one using a Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card, or by launching the Apple Pay or Samsung Pay apps.
The machine is billed by its makers at Solana-based NFT marketplace Neon as the “world’s first” NFT vending machine, though Time Out points out that this title might have already been claimed by someone else. The so-called ‘NFT ATM’ had a soft launch in December and is now operating 24/7.
Last night at downtown Manhattan @neon_gallery so cool, love this idea!! #nft #nftatm #gallery #NFTCommumity #NFTdrops #NFTcollections @RopiDani pic.twitter.com/BlJUeGpRUI
— dapunks.nft (@da_punksNFT) February 22, 2022
Jordan Birnholtz, Neon’s co-founder and CMO, says the marketplace aims to help proliferate the work of digital artists to the masses, as well as remove the perceived hassle of shopping for NFTs.
“Our goal is to support artists and creators by letting them sell digital art to everyone, and to help anyone who wants to become a collector," Birnholtz explains in a statement. “Giving people the choice to use vending machines and an easy online platform that decouples cryptocurrency from NFT participation means we can engage the widest possible audience. NFT buying and selling doesn’t need to be a mystery.” He tells Decrypt that, in his opinion, “there is literally no simpler way to buy something” than via a vending machine.
Buyers don’t have a say in what they receive from the device, however. After selecting the preferred NFT collection, whatever they get is randomized. In a way, the vending machine functions like the gachapon capsule toy machines in Japan.
The physical packaging on the dispensed item is printed with a QR code that buyers can scan through their smartphone camera to redeem the NFT.
Heading down to the Color store to buy some colorspic.twitter.com/LZlgnAzfc6
— The Colors NFT (@TheColorsNFT) January 14, 2022
For now, the vending machine dishes out NFTs from just two series specially designed for the installation: Party Pigeons, created by illustrator Typfy; and Project Color. The latter collection is fairly affordable, with digital artworks priced at US$5.99 a pop.
Neon has plans to expand this array with other artists, in addition to rolling out more vending machines in the summer. “Having ironed out the technical challenges in dispensing and redeeming NFTs, we’re inviting artists and creators to feature their NFTs in our machines,” Birnholtz told Decrypt.