At first I was glad to see the first few bitcoin ATMs coming on line.

Then I found out that they require a palm print, facial photo, and government ID scan.  My jaw dropped.

1. The legacy financial system's ATMs are under none of these onerous requirements.  Any Bank of America, Wells Fargo, or Citibank ATM will happily spit out $500 at a time to holders of anonymous prepaid cards issued from any country on the planet (except possibly Iran and North Korea).  No photos, no ID, nothing.  This is an unbelievably blatant double standard.

2. The user has no idea who this information is being given to or what will be done with it.  Most importantly, there is no guarantee that use of a bitcoin ATM will not be grounds for an IRS audit.  Mark my words, two or three years from now any US person who's ever gone through AML/KYC with any bitcoin-related business, including use of one of these ATMs, will get audited.  The IRS has complete impunity to audit whoever they like, whenever they like, for any reason (including political orientation) or no reason at all.  If they can use audits to repress a wing of the Republican party, I'm sure they can use them to repress cryptocurrencies.  They've already used it to harrass open source projects.

I really think this is the legacy system's strategy for strangling bitcoin.  They've apparently been able to convince regulators to impose AML/KYC requirements on bitcoin-related business above and beyond those imposed on all other money-related businesses.  With that little barrier out of they way they can now simply keep bumping up the regulatory requirements to whatever level is required to make bitcoin more inconvenient/risky than what they're offering.

The people operating these ATMs need to stand up to FINCEN and point this out.  The potential users of these ATMs need to shun those based on an AML/KYC double standard.  Don't accept a level of regulation that exceeds what's imposed on the legacy financial system.  That's the only line in the sand.

Edit: boldified "anonymous prepaid cards" since people seem to be missing that part.

In the terms of your metaphor, I'm recommending a path to others, and advising them on the big-picture long-term consequences of the "default" path.  My agenda is nothing other than bitcoin's success, and I somehow doubt anybody who didn't share that agenda would be on this forum in the first place (and, if they are, this thread isn't for them).

This is a pretty far-out scenario, and while I don't doubt that it's possible I think that retail space travel and colonization of other planets will come first.  At least it will come before something like this is imposed worldwide in every country.

Hahaha so let's all just cheer Bitcoin and hope we will be able to escape from Earth before situation for everyone reaches pitch black.

You are fucking retard.

The Bitcoin ATM in Boston does not require anything other than a QR code corresponding to your wallet for small deposits. If you want to deposit over about $500, this may not be the case, but it seemed to me like you just had to fill out a form.
It certainly doesn't have the technology to read your palm print. It has the technology to take a photo of your face (or government ID) if you put your face in front of the camera intended for QR codes, but there was no indication that it uses that technology. And even if it does, you'd have to put your face in front of it willingly, at the perfect distance for it to get a photo of your face.
I can't speak for any of the other Bitcoin ATMs.

If anything, I've lost more anonymity posting here than making the transaction at the ATM.

That is awesome.  Which vendor+operator is this, so I can start referring to them as the "good vendor/operator" and the others as the "bane of bitcoin"?

This is how it should work; I will be sure to seek out and use these ATMs and recommend them to my friends.  Unfortunately I'm nowhere near Boston.

It's called Liberty Teller.
http://libertyteller.com
I don't think they have any others outside of Boston - I've never heard of them before today, and I think they're just two people (who I met today when I went there).

Not in the US.  Please name an anonymous prepaid card which allows you to withdraw cash from any ATM.  You won't find one, maybe prior to Patriot Act when AML/KYC took a giant leap up in restrictions.

Yeah it is called peering arrangements.  That is how a card from one issuer can work in the ATM of another issuer.  However part of the peering agreement is that each issuer WILL do AML/KYC.  For a card from slovenia national bank of snow to work on a US ATM network someone stated they do the min checks required by law.  Now the reality is there are tons of shady outfits which don't.  Eventually those shady cards stop working in US ATM networks.  Of course for each one shutdown, another one opens up.  Nothing prevents a Bitcoin ATM to reach a peering arrangement with card issuer by offload the KYC obligation on them.  

I mean do you think ATM operators, or banks, or card issuers, or western union want to do ANY KYC stuff.  It doesn't make any money, it just adds cost.  They do it because they have to.

There ARE NO BITCOIN SPECIFIC AML/KYC requirements.  None.  Absolutely none.  If a particular ATM operator is doing x,y, and z it is because the operator believes x, y, and z is what they need to do to compy with general money transmitter AML/KYC requirements.

There is no regulatory in the US saying "cash ATMs" can do whatever they want but "Bitcoin ATMs" need handprints and photos of passports.  It is that operator who is decided to be cautious and make to without access to the existing networks.   Tomorrow someone could reach an agreement to have all of Chase's networks dispense Bitcoins instead of cash and there would be no different requirements on them than existing right now.


If you still don't get it, you simply don't want to and I think we can both agree we are wasting each other's time.

It's called a flimsy piece of cover-your-ass paper.  Do you really think that Chinese banks, whose cards work in US ATMs, are subject even indirectly to Treasury/FINCEN requirements?  They give the SEC the middle finger on a regular basis; I doubt Treasury is any different.



Of course not.  FINCEN/Treasury bully the bitcoin businesses into doing this but don't bully the legacy financial system into doing it.

It's still a double standard.