Bitcoin Forum

When the banking industry began to make electronic fund transfers possible (credit, debit) they needed a bridge solution that brought the paper-cash economy to the electronic-cash economy.  ATMs seem to have been one of the most effective solutions: you have a bank account with numbers representing imagined value in it, but you can still withdraw "real" cash at any one of thousands of locations.

Given that PayPal just shut CoinPal down, I assume we know this is going to happen to others as well. What is our bridge solution?

BitCoinMe.com does cash-for-bitcoin (and vice versa) at your doorstep.  The great thing about cash is it has no middle man that can get in the way of an exchange.  If we scaled this up to have in-person exchangers in every city, this would provide a partial solution to the problem.  But with the pros come some cons:

1. Cash delivery in any quantity over $50 (on a regular basis) is something best suited for men with guns and armored vehicles.  We don't want bitcoiners to be jumped, hurt, or killed.
2. Having someone come to your door removes anonymity from the transaction.

What would it take to create a bitcoin ATM?

Suppose a person could visit the ATM, enter a bitcoin address (via USB? via an aliased email address? via some other shortened method?) and then insert cash. The cash is stored in the ATM for collection later, while the bitcoin address is immediately credited at current exchange rates.

On the flip side (withdrawal), suppose ATMs have addresses accessible on the internet (like an email address, e.g. times-square@bitcoinatm.com). You send bitcoin to the address, and then receive a payment receipt with a 5 digit PIN (this could be on your smart phone, or at home on the computer). Then you turn to (or go visit) the ATM and punch in the PIN. Out comes cash, rounded down to the dollar, at current exchange rates.

Can we do this? Should we?

Replying to my own post because I just thought of one obvious idea to add...

Why not issue our own debit cards, with one swipe providing the bitcoin address?  Then users would know exactly what to do at the "bitcoin ATM" because they've been doing just that since forever.

The trouble is anything like this is just bound to be shut down or is playing with fire.
Everything is either destined to be small time peer-to-peer for a while.  Then when there actually is demand, someone is going to just have to jump through all of the regulatory hoops it takes to be a currency exchanger and go that way.  And of course have fees to make up for all this cost.

It doesn't make sense to play by all the big time regulations on such a small market (even with $3.5/BTC), but maybe some day it will.  Until then, P2P is gonna have to be the best system.

ATMs and local manned stores may come, but it's going to be a ways out IMO.  But that doesn't mean we don't prove it can work and grow it until we get shut down, and in the process grow the economy.  Then it will be easier to justify jumping through all the hoops.

We need bitcoin cash dealers on the ground.

Perhaps the right approach is to find a small economy--perhaps a country with fewer regulations and a high ratio of bitcoin supporters--in which to experiment.  Taking on the USG sounds too ambitious (edit: at first), you're right about that.

A town or a city in which there are high density of bitcoin users.

It is was a secret info but btcex.com are preparing to sell bitcoins through more than 100 000 ATMs in ex-USSR on the next week or two. This is not a joke.

bitcoin atm thread is here: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5943.0

Phenomenal!  Thanks for the link.

eta till bitcoin reaches critical mass: 60 days

This is like planning to land on the moon in 1934

If you are about btcex.com: the site has long been ready and have fields for ATM checkout. many users seen ATM control on the site and waits.

Just in Russia work with ATM is arranged differently from others, because of the vast turnover of cash. We just connect to ATM service provider, not install our ATMs

We are glad to announce first permanent Bitcoin ATM of Switzerland!
It is an Lamassu ATM and it is locatet in downtown Zurich, in Cafe Schoffel, Schoffelgasse 7, 8001 Zurich.

Cafe Schoffel also is accepting Bitcoins (As one of the first Restaurants in Switzerland).

Please drop in, when you are in Zurich.

Hope to see ATM all over the world soon and that we will have to make withdraws / purchases any time anywhere.

Yeah, yes we do, but we need to stop the ID scan and all that fucking orwelian looking shit. We need to do it anonymous FFS, otherwise it defeats the point. Look at this shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnm4xFC2xNo

We need to avoid this shit ASAP. We need to make it simple. Put FIAT into machine, Bitcoin gets transported in your wallet, period! We need to hire people as security to avoid people robbing you and what not and that's about it. No one is going to want to scan their ID's and creepy shit like that.

That will be the dream. Every bitcoiners wants to see that. Yes, its no hard that we are going to invest in btc. It might skyrocket anytime soon. :) BTC all the way!

I think we don't need bitcoin ATM because it's expensive and you need some time use bitcoin

I think you just need a smartphone & your bitcoin address (in QR code), that's faster and simpler  :)
And more anonymous

This is not a thing to happen immediately we see there are many people adopting bitcoin day by day

This video is bull shit i we definitely need to AVOID this.
I agree with you make it simple, meaning more like standard atm.
Card Pin deposit or withdraw, with small fee.

No, we need more people getting paid in bitcoin, is what we need.  Merchant adoption is there, and that problem has been solved just fine.  Now we need those same companies who adopted bitcoin to pay their employees in bitcoin.

Then it will take off.

EDIT: And I just realized I'm replying to a 3.5 year old thread.  This is fun. :)

BTC ATMs needs to scan your identification to comply with AML/KYC requirements. If they did not do this then the ATMs would likely get shut down and the owners/operators would likely get charged with money laundering.

I think scanning ID will add somewhat level of legitimacy to both bitcoin and bitcoin ATMs.  

First bitcoin peeps should educate people all over the world. Some of them just doesnt know about btc. Not some many.

specially in the countries like angola, jamaica, etc

Bitcoin ATM in my place will be much cooler than a regular ATM tho..

Yes it should be educated indeed, but this will be little challenging also it may backfire potential new user this can be good and bad.
Depends from point of view off course

Well, I need btcs first before I need its ATM

wouldn't that mean that government will have some control on BTC ?

Actually not. The number of Bitcoin ATM doesn't connected with a government control.

So if you get BTC on the ATM what carda are you going to use? What will you receive in return (normal atms you get dollars in cash)

Thing is that they need to be simple as possible can be. I watch one video, when they had so much troubles, that took lots of time to make a transactions. That can push off many people. I do belive, soon will be perfect AMT out there.

I agree with you. Popularity of Bitcoin is increasing day by day. So bitcoin ATMs becoming essential. I have found that Bitcoin ATMs are already available in few countries.

capital city of my country have 300.000 population and 4 ATMs :P

I would say in many countries, although the number within each country is low: Canada and US are on top
You may check the Bitcoin ATM map here http://coinatmradar.com (http://coinatmradar.com)

we sure do need more, not least cuz fees to use them right now are sometimes pretty steep, so competition definitely required! I would think twice as customer if i saw commission for using ATM was 7% for example!

I don't think we need ATMs in order to increase bitcoin adoption. I think we need more merchants to accept bitcoin and to offer discounts for paying in bitcoin in order to increase adoption.

It is already very easy for people to buy bitcoin as it is.

The problem is the word "few" . We need more. We need every people in the world to embrace bitcoin. But how?

Give it a time, this can not happen overnight. The first Bitcoin ATM was launched less than a year ago. As I'm carefully monitoring all the Bitcoin ATM news, I see there are many positive experiences with ATMs recently. Also people who don't even know a lot about Bitcoin, see those ATMs appearing and start asking questions. This is good. I'm pretty confident that Bitcoin ATMs are a good means of increasing people awareness and increase adoption.

With bitcoin ATM everywhere, that would be the true haven of BTC 8) 8)

I agree with you. I also think that Bitcoin ATMs has become essential for us. Specially on those country, which have accepted Bitcoin.

What we need is functional debit card which can be used as a regular card. This would avoid banks and enable people to buy stuff with their coins.

What cost are you willing to pay to get this?  Use XAPO if you don't care about the cost of doing BTC business with a debit card.

Seem like in my country Serbia will be one.

According to this article  http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2014&mm=09&dd=17&nav_id=900624 (http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2014&mm=09&dd=17&nav_id=900624)
Only is left to see if there are promising that they will have this on several other countries.

ATM just provide sell and buy, we can not withdraw anything. then what is different?

Yes i saw this. This is totally push people out of BTC. Such ATMs should be prohibited by law!

We need more security... If our Bitcoin gets stolen then what the heck am I going to withdraw...

Depending on your Jurisdiction, it may be possible to have low-volume ATMs (less than $1000/day) avoiding any reporting requirements. I looked into this a bit yesterday and document my results in this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12156.msg8954461#msg8954461). While $1000/day may not be much, if every business has one, it should be possible to find one not maxed out.

Either I missed something, or the US regulations seem to more clearly allow it than the Canadian ones.

Hope they come out soon.!! but looks rather Unlikely in my country for the next 3-4 years atleast.!