Australian company plans to set up 100 bitcoin ATMs by 2015

ABA Technology recently announced plans to create a network of at least 100 machines across the country by 2015, and more than 500 across the globe by 2016. Founded by 29-year-old entrepreneur Chris Guzowski, the company launched its first bitcoin ATM two weeks ago on the outskirts of Sydney. Working with U.S.-based bitcoin ATM maker Robocoin, ABA plans to launch a second ATM later this month in Melbourne.

If setting up 100 bitcoin ATMs in a year seems ambitious, that’s because it is. The bitcoin ATM market only moved beyond the proof-of-concept stage a few months ago, and the handful of bitcoin ATM manufacturers in the world are working with first-generation hardware and software. What’s more, Australia’s rules on bitcoin ATMs, and on bitcoin in general, are still murky. ABA is betting that the rewards of investing in this unproven technology still far outweigh the risks.

Speaking with Australia’s Dynamic Business website, Guzowski echoed a common sentiment among bitcoin investors: It’s the next big thing.

Now I identify Bitcoin as even more significant than Facebook or eBay. Bitcoin is a technology as significant as a personal computer in the 1970s or the internet of the 1990s. And there are applications of it that we have not grasped or invented yet.”

ABA isn’t Guzowski first time as a technology entrepreneur. He’s also the founder of Quadace Investments, a venture capital company that has invested in projects ranging from tech upgrades for the hospitality industry to Polish wind farms.