Reverse ATM would be a cool startup, especially if you could make online payments or acquire cryptocurrencies in addition to getting prepaid cards.

After a quick search, it looks like someone in Portland tried to do something along these lines: https://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/reverse-atm-caters-to-po...

It doesn’t look like it went anywhere, online info on the company is scant apart from a few press releases.

Basically you’re just talking about offering a physical cash-friendly terminal to the digital economy. Maybe someone should try that angle. Counterfeit and money laundering will be huge issues. It’s hard to anonymously launder money at scale with storebought prepaid cards, because of the humans in the sales loop (which also allow non-money-laundering transactions to happen anonymously). A workable compromise might be to require a SSN/PIN combo at the reverse ATM.

As for counterfeit: sophisticated scanners? I think many banks allow you to deposit cash or checks at their larger, bank-branded ATMs. Perhaps that technology is available. You’ll probably just end up buying “counterfeit insurance” and then try to get whatever tech will drive your premiums down.

All good points. If the install market for these is fast-casual restaurants, it's probably not unreasonable to cap them at something like $20 per transaction. While the cards should be reloadable, they could probably also have limits for both carried balance and reload frequency, and the presence of human staff at restaurants should also deter money-laundering activity.

These are already at airports, since cash can't be accepted.

You mean a gift card?

That would just add an extra step to cash transactions, if you plan on allowing people to buy gift cards with cash. The whole point of the policy from the business’s perspective is to cut costs around handling cash.