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UTICA, NY -- Upstate Networks has posted a video demonstration of a vending machine that can accept BitCoin currency payments.
BitCoin is a "crypto" or virtual currency developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009; it has found international favor with Internet enthusiasts. The unit of exchange, the bitcoin, is a digital token that can be transferred from one owner to another over the Internet by effecting a securely encrypted transaction that records the bitcoin payment's withdrawal from the buyer's "wallet" and deposit into the seller's. Bitcoins may be purchased from a number of online "exchanges."
In the video, Dr. Stuart W. Card of Critical Technologies (also based in Utica) purchases a bag of popcorn from a snack machine by using his smartphone to scan a QR code displayed by the machine, then transfer a bitcoin payment from his "wallet" to the machine's. | SEE VIDEO DEMO
Upstate Networks earlier posted a YouTube video of its DroidVend Application, which allows a vending patron with a smartphone running Google's Android operating system to make purchases from suitably-equipped vending machines through an online service like PayPal. | SEE VIDEO
Upstate Networks was founded in 1994 and incorporated in New York in 1995. It manufactures hardware and software designed to interface vending products to PCs and other general-purpose computers, and has worked with manufacturers to develop novel vending and other self-service pay-per-use equipment.
