Hey guys. Very interesting discussion here.
Just wanted to address OP question - there are actually about 35 bitcoin machines in CA, not 2.
You can find here the full list of
bitcoin ATMs in California.
Of course, there are several main areas with concentration of machines in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
Also I mentioned several times people were mentioning like there are no machines, e.g. only 1 in Sydney. There are actually 5 machines in Sydney.
For latest locations - one can use
CoinATMRadar bitcoin machines map. I keep this map up to date for quite a long time. Not 100% guarantee, but many machines should reflect real data as I'm in touch with many operators. Also user feedback can be found on pages, in case I'm not that fast at updating listings.
Addressing the comment regarding the bitcoin machines lack of installation, and that the most boom was when the price was high, well, actually when the price was falling, many closed locations.
I know this because was in touch with many operators, and many still were using the model, when they held bitcoins in their hot wallet (not connecting to exchange for immediate mirror transactions).
So when price fell, BTC holdings also lost value. This was additional loss for many, that's why it was not working good.
However, since price stabilized - conditions became better. Actually what we see lately - there is a much faster growth of bitcoin ATM installations.
Check stats here
http://coinatmradar.com/charts/#growth
Addressing the concern about high fees. They are at the moment 8% average for buy bitcoin, 5% sell bitcoins. In the U.S. the fees are a bit higher than average, in Europe I believe lower (have not checked it for a while).
I also found this high at the beginning, but then having conversations with people running ATMs, it is not really that high. I mean operators are not doing crazy money here, it is kind of balance of costs on one side and revenue on the other. Of course, they are doing profits, but not as a rip-off of customers. Nowadays, more and more there is a trend to follow KYC/AML, especially in the U.S. and this adds to costs as well.
In the end of the day, comparing locabitcoins, when you need to meet with some stranger you don't know, or use a bitcoin ATM at about same fee level, I would prefer bitcoin ATMs personally.
Regarding following KYC/AML - yes it's happening, but this is reasonable usually. Also as some mentioned here - Lamassu are by design don't really fit into this model and many machines in operation don't require any phone or ID verification. Rest machines - usually have phone/ID verifications. But these checks are also based on some limits. E.g. normally you can purchase some amount w/o verifications, e.g. up to $500, then up to $1000 you need phone by SMS check, and then up to $3000 you need to scan ID. It is not like you need check phone and ID for purchasing $20 in bitcoins. Usually those requirements make sense. However, as I said there are still many machines, which don't require any kind of verifications.
I find bitcoin ATMs quite useful at least at this stage of development:
- it helps people to get into crypto world quickly and smoothly (now machines are quite reliable, you don't have this Robocoin experience anymore). Also some random people can see it in public places and gets interested. I see daily many twitter posts like "you won't believe, I just saw a bitcoin ATM".
- immediate transactions without previous opening account/verifications for days etc.
- I also see more and more an opportunity for cheap money transfers. Although buy bitcoin fees are quite high I see at many locations sell bitcoin price is quite low. Sometimes it may be even -2% to the market, so even better than market. This is due to lack of bank relationships and basically operators need bitcoins to run business (90% of transactions are buy bitcoin, only 10% is sell), so operators set very low fees for sell operations. And this creates an opportunity to send money from abroad, buy using another bitcoin ATM for buy bitcoin out of the country. So e.g. if one charges 5% for buy bitcoins and another charges -2% for sell bitcoin in country, you can send money from cash to cash for 3% immediately.
If someone has any particular questions, e.g. about some stats as I have access to full database of all locations - let me know, will try to address.
