I posted this in /r/bitcoin, but someone removed it immediately?  

Whatever, I still think the experience is worth sharing.

Flying from Zürich to Amsterdam today, and I'm expecting to be able to use XBT when I arrive. I'm also excited to get in on the SBB's new offer. So I'll get rid of some CHF cash so I don't have to deal with two paper currencies. This isn't a comprehensive review, just some highlights.

The machines at my first two train stations were pretty busy and it was stressful trying to figure out what to do for the first time. I ran out of time at both stations, but I tried again at the airport where there were a lot of machines available and I had a lot more time to mess with it. During my train ride I read on the SBB's website how to get through this process, and that helped a lot.

You have to go through a "Prepaid/top up Bitcoin" option, which wasn't really intuitive for me. Then it asks for your QR code, so I showed it mine, and then you get to this screen!



I had CHF 80 in my pocket, so I chose "other".
You are shown the exchange rate/fee, which I don't really care about at this point, so I just move quickly through:


Next it asks for your phone number. This takes the most time, especially if you're not used to a Swiss number (put a 0 in front of your number, don't include the +4X or whatever)


It sends you a 4 digit code via SMS, you enter it and continue. Then it asks for your cash, you put the bills in here:


Success! It spits out a receipt where the paper tickets usually come out:


I put in CHF 80 and received CHF 72.61 worth of XBT, which I think is about the same as if I changed for EUR. The future is awesome!  

Yup adoption all the way, easier, harder, more annoying  but its still move forward.
Thanks for sharing, its good to see real life experiences with bitcoin.

Indeed and that's so amazing, it's showing if bitcoin are can be the convenience method for paying anything in this time, such a useful information for me and thanks for this, just waiting about the another experience with this cool machine. 

Why stuff like this always gets thrown off reddit's bitcoin section ? I guess we need a bitcoin off-topic subredit for that.

Glad you actually took your time out to snap all those pictures.What were the service charges anyway ? Did you pay extra for using the service ?Honestly,not worth it if you actually paid more than the original price of the ticket.

Interesting thread, I was just looking for feedback on this new system... Looks like it is really great, but fees seem to be a little stiff. I wonder how easy was it to implement this. This is most likely a very nice cost saving versus Bitcoin ATM's.

Thank you for sharing your experience and documenting the process!

I have a few questions regarding the machine:

Do you need to have a Swiss mobile number or can you use any mobile number? (Would be great for international travelers.)

If a Swiss SIM is required, how can a foreigner obtain an activated one at low cost?

Does the machine accept Swiss Franc coins as well? (Would be outstanding to get rid of chump change when leaving Switzerland, as coins can't be exchanged at banks.)

ya.ya.yo!

Hope, SBB can share us some sales. It would be interesting to see some charts of the next months. This would be a huge indicator for the Bitcoin-World.

Greetz
Steve

I've been seeing more and more bitcoin atm around the world and this is really a great feeling.
 So far here are the list of atm bitcoin that i saw being posted in this forum
Probably USA and UK
-jakarta Indonesia
-makati philippines
-china

Very cool that you were able to do this. I hope more European countries follow suit and put these things in railway stations.
In my country, Belgium, I feel we're still a bit behind on the physical Bitcoin applications.

I didn't have a problem with the pricing, I think it's a fair deal all things considered and I'll keep using the system to get rid of small/old bank notes. I paid about 4CHF to get 75CHF worth of XBT, so I find it's about the same to change into other major currencies (EUR/USD). It's really valuable when you start to deal with less known currencies like Forint, there the exchange rates get really bad.

You can't buy tickets with this system, you can only give the machine cash notes and it sends Bitcoin to the wallet that you show using your mobile wallet (Mycellium/Breadwallet/etc.).