Confirm locations in Uruguay are cinemas, hostels and a store. (That's probably more than the modest bitcoin demand in Uruguay will needat this time, but it's our backyard, so we go bold here ) - We have currently inquiries for 50-60 machines from 7 countries (Latam/Asia/Europe), but I can't yet comment on the exact type of location.

Hi,

let me quickly answer the questions that came up:


Is it a bitcoin vending machine?

yes, it is indeed a "vending" machine - any machine that spills out fiat cash for bitcoins will not reach wide distribution any time soon. The reason is the way Anti-Money-Laundering regulation are designed around the globe. If you take cash and give out something you are looking at the standard business operation - Goods out / Cash in - essentially every store on this planet works that way.

If you turn this operation around and give out cash to people - you have to do KYC (Know-Your-Client) and AML procedures in almost any jurisdiction in the world. The moment you have to do KYC/AML you can safely assume you are regulated and need a license. Or to be exact: you need many many licenses - one for each jurisdiction you operate in.

The challenges with being licensed or obtaining a license are in general:

• "You need to be a bank to become a bank" - In most jurisdictions it is impossible to fulfil the criteria to obtain a license if you don't already have proven years long record operating as a financial institution.
• Apart from some places you need to obtain a separate license for every single jurisdiction in the world (that's 48 licenses in the US alone)
• The licensing process is very costly and very slow - it usually takes many months if not years for the license to be granted. Legal advisors for the financial sector are among the best paid specialists, there are application fees and in most cases up to several millions have to be deposited with the regulating authority or central bank. Also: Maintaining the licenses isn't cheap - in most cases there are hefty annual fees to pay.
• In many (if not the most) jurisdiction obtaining a license is not even possible as the legal status of bitcoin has not yet been clarified. Which could mean that after going through all the pain of obtaining a license, it could turn out to be the wrong license or the given license can end up being revoked. (That's one of the reasons why so many banks shy away from working with bitcoin startups.)

I could go on, but you get the picture. No startup in the world will be able to overcome this hurdles anytime soon unless it has the financial power of someone like HSBC (to name a company that is fully licensed in many parts of the world).

In short: Any machine exchanging both ways has very few spots around the globe where it can go. And even those few spots are pending future regulation which might take this machines out of business at any time.

To the contrary: Selling Bitcoins is legal in most parts of the world. - So a "bitcoin vending machine" has by far better chances to reach wide distribution in a short amount of time.


Is it available?

Yes, we are taking orders and shipping. There is a caveat to this: This is not a buy-and-run-it-yourself piece of hardware. The BTM is a part of our product strategy to bring bitcoin out of the "geek-zone" and into the lives of ordinary people. As such it connects to our SMS and Social Network services and is also otherwise embedded in our eco-system. If a Moneero BTM doesn't work, has been setup illegally and gets seized or anything else bad happens - it falls back on Moneero. So in order to buy BTMs the buyer needs to partner with us and the vetting process can take a couple of weeks.

I hope this answers some of the questions - more information will be released in the days to come.

kind regards

Steven

I looked through some of the states rules and procedures to obtain licenses - all I saw demand bonds and presence in the state. So this means that any MtGox would have to set up 50 local branches, one in each state and have them obtain a license?

Is that how.... say Paypal... operates?

-SM

PS: Would you mind to mention some of the states that do not demand a license? The one you mentioned under "small rollout"...

Hi,

I am a bit confused about the "all 50 states" assumption. I understand that this is state law and that a US business might or might not need to register in all 50 states. But for a non US business as MtGox - they would have to apply for licenses in all 50 states? What if they have a bank account in one state and clients from all 50 states ACH or wire money to the account. Is accepting payments from the other 49 states considered "doing business" there?

PS: Great to have you here!

Dude, take a deep breath and chill ...then take a dictionary and look up "personal attack", "insult" and thelike - Do you own a cat or a dog or any other pet? Well guess what - they are parasites feeding off you. And excuse me - is your last name Mr. Ripple? He is merely expressing his opinion - there is not one personal attack (=attack on a person) or insult in his post. He has a strong opinion about what possible effect Ripple can have on Bitcoin. Whats wrong with that?

Actually - the way you react to this makes his post a lot more credible and your's a whole lot weaker - Especially since you argue that reapting things over and over without adding anything sucks and then you repeat over and over that he is arming personal attacks and insults and baseless accusations- which he is clearly not!

So as I said - chill and let people express their opinion. Just because someone disagrees with you it's not an insult, right?

If you can't deal with different opinions and critics - bitcointalk might not be the right thing for you 

-SM

...like a bank owned by Bitcoiners?

Samans username ist Saman

very likely - we started this as a Latin American platform but it's a pretty sure bet that we will go globally with it. The Soft- and Hardware of an Exchange is only half of the rent - There is legal, organizational, banking stuff to consider and we are currently working on this. At the moment I can not comment on legal and bankable issues as we are in the processes of obtaining licenses and negotiating with possible partners from the financial industry. But it looks very promising.

Hi

just wanted to point your attention to the video we have release today - we are working on a new trading platform (http://btc.uy) and an early stage test shows that we reach over 300k Transactions per Second in our Order Matching Engine - The Order Matching is capable of many millions of TPS, the bottleneck at the moment is shuffling more then 300k in and out of the Order Matching Engine. This test has been done on a fairly modest hardware, so we are confident we can increase this as we go.

For the technical interested here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liN_ipXcMHw

or on Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/BTCglobal

a.m.a.

-SM

rGcXchwNHnMYPVyLvHyxPuXWSPLRnRcRU6

Hi everyone

I am extremely happy to announce that we launched the pre-registration page for the Exchange platform we are building for Latin America:

http://btc.uy/

We are based in Uruguay (a traditionally stable banking center) and are working on opening ways for all Latin American countries to trade with ease and comfort in USD and their respective local currency.

ETA for closed beta is 4 Weeks from now.

Thanks


SM

Hi und Sorry - ich war so beschäftigt die tage, das ich hier gar nicht reingeguckt habe...


zur Qualitätssicherung: Im Augenblick ist das alles noch überschaubar - wir sehen uns jeden Bewerber an. In manchen Fällen wie dem Programmierer von Armory, Mitgliedern der Bitcoinfoundation oder bekannten Experten wie Peter Surda ist das ziemlich einfach. Im Zweifel unterhalten wir uns mit den Leuten und versuchen einen Eindruck zu gewinnnen.
Das Projekt bietet auch eine Mailingliste und eine geschlossene FB Gruppe (für die FB Nutzer) - wir haben die Qualitätssicherung auch dort zum Thema gemacht und diskutieren das zur Zeit unter allen Beteiligten.

Zusammenarbeit: Ja, ja und ja - wir sind an allen Formen der Zusammenarbeit interessiert. Einfach das Kontaktformular auf der Seite nutzen und wir schauen von da aus weiter.

Alte Hasen @Bernd33-1 und @k4spr - Genau aus diesem Grund hab ich ja hier im Forum geposted. Um ein paar der Alten Hasen anzusprechen und aus dem Forum ins Büro oder an den POS zu bekommen um Interessierten mal Bitcoin face2face zu erklären.

Danke für Euer Feedback und Hilfen und freue mich von Euch zu hören!


-SM

Thanks

Please if you know any experts around the globe go tell them about it.


-SM (founder of BTCXperts.com)

e) - I made also 18 posts in 5 languages 

please, pretty please...with powder sugar and a cherry on top? Someone? 

Hi


Immer mehr old-school Unternehmer und Anleger interessieren sich für bitcoins und wissen nicht an wen sie sich wenden können. Ich bin daher gerade dabei ein internationales Verzeichnis von Bitcoin Beratern aufzubauen:

http://btcxperts.com/

Wer sich also beruflich/professionell mit bitcoins beschäftigt und beratend tätig sein möchte ist herzlich eingeladen sich eintragen zu lassen. Einfach kurz das Kontaktformular ausfüllen und ich melde mich bei Euch.

(das projekt ist erst ein paar Tage alt und ich arbeite noch daran, daher fehlen noch einige funktionen, aber es wird jeden tag besser )

Liebe Grüße


-SM

Hi

I am working on a international directory of bitcoin experts and consultants - if you are working professionally in that sector (or planning to do so) just fill out the contact form and I will create a profile for you.

http://btcxperts.com/

Thanks


-SM

Witam

kto z was jest na FB moze sie interesuje - powstala nowa grupa http://www.facebook.com/groups/bitcoin.polska/

Serdeczne zapraszamy


- SM

Witam,

istnieje tesz grupa na facebooku - http://www.facebook.com/groups/bitcoin.polska/


pozdrawiam

Hi


I am working on a international directory of bitcoin experts and consultants - if you are working professionally in that sector (or planning to do so) I wold love to meet you. Just fill out the contact form and I will create a profile for you.

http://btcxperts.com/

Thanks



-SM

Salam,

I am sorry I speak only a few phrases Turkish

But I would love to meet some seasoned bitcoineers from Turkey - I am working on a international directory of bitcoin experts and consultants - if you are working professionally in that sector (or planning to do so) just fill out the contact form and I will create you a profile.

http://btcxperts.com/

Tesekur ederim

- SM