So does the ATM utilize graphene or bts1.0? I'm guessing since you're still figuring out how to compile bts2.0 the latter is true. That is disappointing for several reasons. Firstly graphenes code base has been public for more than a month. For the purposes of an ATM you don't need a full or light client installed in the ATM you just need a script that connects to the websocket. And lastly if it is utilizing bts1.0 it is absolutely useless at this point. You really shouldn't be taking pre-orders until you have things better ironed out.
It uses graphene. Getting BTS 2.0 to compile was a bit of a challenge no doubt. The instructions out there don't really explain what's needed to stand it up as a service under linux and they still reference the graphene github not the bitshares-2 github. Despite the fact they are identical right now, they may not always be. Either way ,that challenge has been overcome and I even wrote a tutorial on how to get it setup, it's posted over in the support section of these forums.
The Graphene code base may have been available for over a month, but it was a moving target and if you look at the commit log, you'll see there have been many, many revisions in that time frame. It was a moving target and you can't really architect around that. Now the API is basically frozen for awhile, it's time to get to work on that aspect of our code base. Yet if you look at the official release such as the webwallet, it's still not functioning reliably and correctly.
But at least what "should" work is defined and that's a good starting point for integration.
As for the ATMs, keep in mind that these things "support" bitshares. They are not "specifically tailored" for bitshares, but bitUSD is a potential settlement mechanism we're evaluating and I fully support. Truth is these devices can be used to vend any electronically delivered product including giftcards and other cryptos. The design is flexible enough that it doesn't matter what you're selling as long as it can be delivered via some electronic means. It's just a matter of connecting the fulfillment engine up to the retail side.
We were originally going to support the 1.x bitshares and you'll see I made a few posts about that, but once a release date was announced on 2.x it no longer made any sense to try and support 1.x. The deadline was too close and we would have had migration issues. A wait and see approach was warranted. I think we were validated on this decision, considering how many live exchanges right now still don't have 2.0 support functioning yet.
So think of this announcement this way...
We aren't taking pre-orders in the sense of "one day a product will be made".
We're not 20 something kids in our mom's basement asking for funds on kickstarter for a project that may or may not ever see the light of day.
We're not asking the bitshares community to crowdfund a project.
We're letting you know that we have a product, it's real, bitshares support is being integrated and the physical device is shipping right now.
As soon as the software upgrade is complete it will be added to the image in manufacturing and also provided as a downloadable upgrade for owners who want to sell bitassets through their ATMs.
We are now at the point where we're producing demo videos of the thing in action and getting ready for a big marketing push, once that is done the price goes back up.
In the meantime we have manufacturing capacity we're paying for. Therefore, we're taking orders and filling them in batches. You get what comes off the line when it comes of the line and since we aren't paying for marketing just yet you get a substantial discount for buying early. Once the marketing push begins on Nov 1st, the discount drops off.
Even without the discount it's still the lowest cost crypto enabled ATM/Kiosk on the market and you can buy it right now with BTS or bitUSD.