Bitcoin Forum

so, in my country there are only 3-4 of them, in my City only 1 until now, for now we are probably going with a Caffe for security, trying to get something near the main bus station because of a high number of 20-35 year old's arriving here by bus, about 1,5 mil per year, 1 mil during summer only, we would like to have it at the station itself but we hear the rent is huge
so, any suggestions? and general tips if you've had your own two-way atm's

in my city there is no bitcoin atm and i am pritty sure people will kill me with their strange staring eyes if i try tp set one. but if i do so then i will prefer a marketplace or near any railway station because on these places people need money

I would put them in shopping malls our outlet malls in big cities. Just to get people into it more. Max exposure.

For setting up a bitcoin atm choose shopping malls or some place where most of the educated people hangs out.

Bitcoin is not a cup of tea for poor people. Most tech savy people knows bitcoin and they are educated. So using shopping malls or big corporate premise would be an ideal place for setting up a bitcoin atm if you make out some profit from this atm machine.

But if you want to spread awareness about bitcoin among masses, the choose railway stations.  

Take a look at the regular ATM's, they are placed strategically at points of interest. It would be best to place some near the Filling Station and also somewhere in a shopping centre. It's really inconvinient to walk to an ATM that's placed in a random spot from my experience; since its a Bitcoin ATM i suggest it be placed where it can be easily seen. People have to know its there so that if they are Bitcoin users, they know where to go.

If the rent is too high to place the ATM near the main bus station I suggest you to place your ATM anywhere you can afford and just give leaflets to people: near the station, in youth cafes etc. Also you can advertise your ATM in the Internet and in the local newspapers. Good luck! You are doing a great job!

If it were me I wouldn't be looking to capture the general population, I'd be looking for a captive techy audience.

In the UK there's a chain of electronics shops named Cex that hosts ATM machines in a few branches. That's a better option than laying out more for a prime site that'll be barely used.

Overall though I wouldn't be going into the ATM business myself. You don't hear a great deal about them any more.

In my opinion, it should stand in an area where a lot of people under 40 are on the move. This is the aiming group that uses Bitcoin or might use Bitcoin in the future.

Hmm, in my country even machines for candy are destroyed at bus/train stations. Let alone if they think something more valuable is in there.

Are there people running portable ATMs for events and meets? That might make more sense and be safer.

unfortunately bitcoin ATM not available in my city but if suppose there i propose bitcoin ATM will available in every traditional market, bus stations, and train stations even though currently it's very difficult to realizable

It should be placed on the are where there is so many in short at the public place such as malls , train station or even near the school or university also it would be great theres a bitcoin ATM near your house but it more advisable to place it to the area where people always looking for a machine .

wow i'm really impressed with the feedback :D

Thanks for the ideas guys, Betwrong thanks for your idea, so simple yet i didn't think of it :)
any more suggestions regarding the advertisement?

i will defiantly want bitcoin ATM near my house. as the market is too close to my house and i will like to set there. but i am thinking about bitcoin is a virtual currency and how it be possible to withdraw a virtual currency from an ATM?

i will like to put it near such kind of shopping mall where they will accept bitcoin. but actually it is very difficult in present time. because we have not a single shop here in our area who accept btiocin. but i wish and hope that a time will come when all these things will be possible.

We dont have any in our city even the whole country dont have any bitcoin ATM at this moment and i will love to start one can you please also mention what does it take to start your own bitcoin ATM machine and how much it costs and what are the maintenance etc it will also help others

BTW what is your location ?

I think the location for ATM bitcoin are tourist attraction, shopping complex, or at street near the airport who has low cost of rent and tax. However bitcoin is famous because low fees. I hope my propose will help thank you very much.

should be located in the center of the crowd just like in the center of city park,it will gives few benefits such as security,popularity,and even advertisement,if the location were crowded,but just not too crowded,it'll sure lower the possibilites of criminality to be happening

School campus: Computer Science department

The best ATM station would be at the mall or shopping center. Well I do hope in every municipality there is an ATM like that but it is impossible for the moment since there are only few individuals are involved in this kind of currency. So for your area like I said it would be the shopping malls with enough  agreement you could occupy a small space near other atms also.

Anywhere *but*


Something central, either a CBD or shopping precinct.  Combined Rail and Bus interchange inside a coffee shop with a semi private area that people won't be observed feeding huge sums of cash into (or withdrawing from).

I would avoid smack bang in a Shopping Mall near other Fiat ATM's as they will have numerous eyes (and CCTV) trained on them.  Curious shoppers will watch to see who uses the new ATM on the patch.

Certainly near a university or college campus would be ideal, but if it were inside those, then questions might start being asked why a non-student was coming and going at odd hours.

... and don't just limit it to BitCoins; LiteCoins and DogeCoins have been in these types of ATM's, so there's no reason you can't add any type of AltCoins to an ATM.

Wow! In our country, we don't even have any bitcoin atm. It's only a matter of time when someone puts one.
Anyway, I know we all think that the best location to place bitcoin atm is where there is most populated. There would be risks too though such as theft and trying to skim others from that atm.

First of all you need to think if it is worth for you to risk your money into setting up a bitcoin ATM.
If you really want it,i think you need to set it in the biggest mall in you're town,you will pay a lot but it is the best location u can get.

If you're buying BitCoins, you only need to print out the QR Code for the Wallet Address and have the BitCoin ATM read that - If you are very security concerned, just burn the paper receipt and QR code you printed (paper/card) after you have made the transaction and no one near you will know where the funds went.

Not sure how you think a BitCoin ATM can be skimmed, but nice to know you are taking personal safety around money seriously.

A hotel that has a steady amount business travelers and events would be ideal.

Hmm,hotel is pretty nice idea too,because you actually can spend bitcoins not only
for food,recreation,but yeah also you can spend it for a room in a hotel!
however i think there wouldn't be many customers in there,mall is better.

What about inside a convention centre or some sort of place where trade fairs are held regularly?  People coming and going from other destinations can talk trade and get some BitCoins out at the same time.

Then while we're talking travel an Airport - people could pick up some BTC just before traveling then use them at their destination.  By extension a travel agent's office.  They can book your travel and you can make payment with BitCoins?

Somewhere where there are a lot of nerds passing by.

That's because people generally won't approach it when they don't know about it. Unless your ATM has some sort of introduction thing and there's a healthy amount of BTC stores in that city, it won't click.
Whereas, if you place it near areas where nerds hang out, there's a greater chance that they actually know about it and will actually use your ATM.

Nerds are good... Nerds with money is even better.

Students attending University or College are usually stone cold broke so can't be relied upon to feed hard earnt cash into a BitCoin ATM.  They might be enticed to work for BitCoins, so you would have to speak to employers which comes back to cafes, food venues or taverns or pubs.

In my city there are no bitcoin ATMs but we have water ATM, Milk ATM, Ticket ATM. It’s good idea to start a bitcoin ATM but I’m really not sure how many citizens actually using bitcoins. I would suggest you to conduct a survey of people to figure out how many of them are using bitcoins or at least heard of bitcoin. Setting up bitcoin ATM in crowed place is not worth it if no one is actually aware of it (about bitcoins). Conduct a survey, conclude the results and set up ATM where you find profitable target group of users.

i think maybe you should set up that in some strategice like train station and shopping malls. for both security and customer purposes. what country is yours OP? i hope that there will a bitcoin atm here in philippines so that we can withdraw easily..

i think it should be set in commercial areas. like near markets banks and near shopping malls. so that it may be convenience for the people to use it. but is ATM necessary for bitcoin. i think if there is internet system that will be enough for bitcoin.

You can never go wrong next to a college. At the best, a decent IT or computer science department would be all over that and give you some traffic, along with some business majors that are into trading cryptos. Worst case, you will have a convenient place for campus heads to come buy bitcoin for their dark market pot orders. Either way, you will profit  ;D

I would suggest  you put it in a accesible public place of a government office (mayor's office.):D  For strategic purpose.  it somehow give an impression that the government is supporting Bitcoin and will attract lots of businessman  and othe capable people.  An educational demonstration can be done on how to operate it.

i think the ATM  machine should be place in such a location where every one have an easy approach.  i think that will make the use of bitcoin very easy. i will regularly use bitcoin ATM.

It would only make sense to place such a machine if there are bitcoin shops around. If you are in a mall, then what's the reason to buy bitcoins at an ATM, if you cant spend it.
Also there are many sites where you can buy coins without any risk.

Here is a distribution of top 10 location types out of all bitcoin ATMs worlwide now:

Place type	% of all BTM locations
Supermarket/food store/Deli	14%
Restaurant/Pizzeria	13%
Cafe/Coffee Shop/Gelateria	7%
Shopping Mall	7%
Cigar Tobacco Shop	6%
BTC Embassy/company office	5%
Computer/Mobile/Electronics/Games	5%
Bar/Pub	5%
Hackerspace/workspace	4%
Forex/Money Services	4%

Hope it helps.

It is very doubtful that there will be are any serious bitcoin accepting shops in the vicinity of that BTM.

You need to understand that BTMs for now are not really fulfill the same role as ATM - it is more of a promotional gadget that serious machine people would use daily to buy Bitcoin.
Treat it more like mechanical billboard. So the only solution here is to place BTM high exposure area.

If I was you, I'd place it in the most popular place of your country/city. This means higher chances more people will use the ATM. By "popular" I'm not talking about places where people come and stay a few hours before they leave, because you need traffic around the ATM, not just people standing there for hours before other people come.

In my city there is no any ATM, but thanks God I am living in the city of sensible people , when I set an ATM at there, people will ask about that and will try to learn about bitcoin, and if find it beneficial they will adopt it.