Walmart Has Quietly Begun Hosting Bitcoin ATMs
The retail giant is offering bitcoin through 200 of its Coinstar kiosks in a tie-up with crypto ATM firm Coinme. We made sure it’s real.
Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, is letting customers buy bitcoin at dozens of its U.S. stores.
Shoppers can purchase the cryptocurrency at Coinstar machines inside the retailer’s cavernous big box stores. A CoinDesk editor verified that the service works, buying a small amount of BTC at a Pennsylvania Walmart on Oct. 12.
“Coinstar, in partnership with Coinme, has launched a pilot that allows its customers to use cash to purchase bitcoin,” Walmart communications director Molly Blakeman told CoinDesk via email. “There are 200 Coinstar kiosks located inside Walmart stores across the United States that are part of this pilot.”
Coinstar is best known for allowing consumers to exchange coins for paper bills or gift cards. The ability to buy bitcoin is enabled by Coinme, a crypto wallet and payment firm that specializes in bitcoin ATMs (BTMs).
After inserting bills into the machine, a paper voucher is issued. The next stage involves setting up a Coinme account and passing a know-your-customer (KYC) check before the voucher can be redeemed. The machine charges a 4% fee for the bitcoin option, plus another 7% cash exchange fee, according to the Coinstar website and verified by CoinDesk.
CoinDesk tested the service out of an abundance of caution following a hoax last month, when a fake press release claimed that litecoin (LTC) would be accepted as payment at Walmart stores. This time, the bitcoin-Bentonville connection is real. A source with knowledge of the pilot said the Litecoin debacle had put Walmart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., off from issuing a press release.
Daily Mail – China carried out a second test of what is believed to be a hypersonic orbital missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead earlier this year, intelligence sources have claimed.
The new test is believed to have taken place on August 13 and involved a similar ‘hypersonic glide vehicle’ to one launched into space on board a Long March rocket back in July, which was first reported earlier this week.
Beijing has acknowledged one of the tests, claiming it launched a ‘peaceful’ civilian spacecraft. But analysts believe the craft can actually be tipped with a nuclear warhead which would be able to evade missile defences.
Daily Mail – Mates reunited, cocktails were drunk and hair was chopped as thousands rejoiced in jubilant scenes on the streets of Melbourne when the clock struck midnight and the city’s long-suffering residents were finally released from the world’s longest lockdown.
Victoria officially lifted its stay-at-home orders at 11:59pm on Thursday after the beleaguered state passed its 70 per cent Covid vaccination target.
Revellers screamed in celebration from their apartment balconies, while car horns could be heard blaring in the background as overjoyed Melburnians got their first taste of freedom since August.
Chinese property giant Evergrande is just 48 hours away from potential collapse
Daily Mail – China‘s second biggest property developer Evergrande is on the verge of collapse after critical deal to stop a default fell through – and it could have major implications for Australia.
The 25-year-old mega apartment developer has debts of more than $400billion and has during the past month missed three annual interest payment deadlines to bondholders.
A 30-day extension on an offshore debt servicing obligation expires on Saturday – the end of a grace period which kicked in late last month.
Daily Mail – Britain’s daily Covid cases have breached 50,000 for the first time in three months, official figures revealed today amid growing fears the sluggish booster vaccine roll-out and impending fourth wave will force ministers to bring back face masks and working from home.
Department of Health bosses recorded another 52,009 infections today, a 15 per cent jump on a week ago and the highest number since July 17 at the peak of the summer spike. The daily average is now approaching peak second wave levels.
Boris Johnson today issued a desperate plea for more Britons to come forward for their boosters to ‘fortify’ people’s defences against the virus, amid fears the rising cases could lead to last-minute curbs ahead of Christmas once again.
Daily Mail – A ‘world-first’ study that Dan Andrews used to justify his mandatory mask mandate has been ridiculed by top experts.
The report was published by the Burnet Institute supporting the Victorian premier’s outdoor mask mandate during the 112-day lockdown in 2020.
The report found ‘mandatory mask use policy substantially increased public use of masks and was associated with a significant decline in new Covid-19
Daily Mail – A consumer rights advocacy group has released a report revealing that COVID vaccine producer Pfizer has secret government contracts and used power to ‘shift risk and maximize profits.’
Pfizer has 73 formalized deals for its COVID-19 vaccine but of those, only five have been formally published by governments and include ‘significant redactions,’ Public Citizen found.
The seven known contracts reviewed by Public Citizen are worth more than $5 billion.
The advocacy group – which gained access to several leaked, unredacted contracts – claims the Manhattan-based pharmaceutical giant’s contracts ‘consistently place Pfizer’s interests before public health imperatives.’
The report accuses Pfizer of including secret language blocking donations of its own doses, opposing an intellectual property waiver that could have allowed for the sharing of technology, having ‘unilateral authority for other decisions’ and more.
Millions Of Americans Are Getting Fired For Not Taking A Jab That’s Now 3% Effective
Information Liberation – CNN is reporting that a new study involving over 600,000 veterans has found that Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine’s protection “fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.”
“A study published Thursday reported a steep decline in vaccine effectiveness against infection by August of this year, especially for people who received the J&J vaccine,” CNN reported over the weekend. “The researchers found that among more than 600,000 veterans, J&J’s vaccine’s protection fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.”
As there are no requirements (yet) that people be triple-jabbed — or double-jabbed in the case of J&J’s shot — this means millions of Americans are getting fired for not having taken a shot that’s now 3% effective.
Alec Baldwin Shoots Prop Gun, Killing 1, Injuring Another on Set of ‘Rust,’ Officials Say
NBC – Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed the cinematographer and injured the director on the set of the movie “Rust” in New Mexico on Thursday, authorities said.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officials said Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer for the Western being filmed, and director Joel Souza were shot on the set in the desert on the southern outskirts of Sante Fe.
Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead by medical personnel, according to County Sheriff’s officials.
Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to receive treatment for his injuries. Actress Frances Fisher, who’s slated to appear in the film, tweeted overnight that Souza had left the hospital. NBC News has not yet confirmed the director’s release.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: AG Garland’s Wife Connected to Voting Machine Vendor ES&S
Gateway Pundit – Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland should recuse himself. He never should have taken on the AG position because he knew he had too many conflicts of interest that would disqualify him from performing his job without bias. We’ve already seen his bias in play.
We reported that the AG’s son is making millions pushing the Critical Race Theory (CRT), the same theory that parents around the country are up in arms about. AG Garland threatened those parents.
Then we uncovered that AG Garland’s wife has close ties to far-left entities like the Brennan Center which are attempting to prevent the 2020 Election audits.
We know that AG Garland’s wife was in the top-secret defense industry with a company called “E-Systems” before she went into the election industry.
Today we can report that along with aligning herself with far-left ‘non-profits’ that Ms. Garland also is connected with election voting machine company, Election Systems and Software (ES&S), at an event in Rhode Island in 2019. (We don’t know if she was paid by ES&S or employed by them or not.)
White House Knew About Letter That Compared Parents to Domestic Terrorists
National School Board Association collaborated with Biden administration, emails show
Washington Free Beacon – The country’s largest school board association collaborated with the Biden White House before sending a controversial letter calling on the FBI to investigate parents as potential domestic terrorists, according to previously unreported emails.
The emails, obtained by Parents Defending Education through public records requests and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, reveal that the National School Board Association’s president and CEO sent the letter to Biden on Sept. 29 without approval from the organization’s board. The letter said that the acts of some parents at school board meetings across the country could be considered “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
The emails also show that the White House asked the association for examples of threats against school board members days before Attorney General Merrick Garland created a task force of officials from the FBI and the Justice Department to determine how to prosecute alleged crimes at school board meetings.
The letter makes clear that the White House was aware of the letter before it was released, while raising questions about whether the White House colluded with the association on the letter to prompt federal action. The letter has sparked allegations that the Biden administration is trying to stifle dissent among parents who oppose mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory at America’s schools. School board meetings have become battlegrounds for factions of parents torn on those issues. Parents in some districts have organized recall efforts to remove school board members who support mandates or radical curricula.
The emails also show that members of the National School Board Association’s board of directors voiced frustration that officials sent out the letter without their approval.
One director at the association said that the letter had “reawakened hostilities” that were just beginning to subside.
NYC Mayor Expands Vaccine Mandate To All City Workers, Offers $500 “Carrot”
ZeroHedge – Despite pushback against the vaccine mandate imposed on the city’s teachers and public school workers and managers, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking coercive city mandates to the next level Wednesday by announcing that they would be extended city-wide.
The mayor told MSNBC in an interview Wednesday morning that his mandate will now expand to “all city agencies, all city workers. It’s time for everyone to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said. “Our public employees are going to lead us out of the Covid era.”
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