Members advice and thoughts on ATMs and their manufacturers?

Hello All,

Before I start, let me say a quick sorry if this has been posted in the wrong section. Couldn't see a clear category that this fitted into.

So, I have been thinking about this project for some time. As some of you may or may not know I am a staunch supporter of the cryptocurrency movement, both for personal and business reasons. It is all well known and observed that the current banking system is an outdated machine that was brilliantly fabricated in the Victorian era yet is a bullish mechanism in the modern day. Security breaches, banking mistrust and impartiality, in fact complete lack of transparency is the biggest daemon that haunts the banking sector with many organisations and so called "institutions" hoping that their skeletons in the closet won't be discovered or should we say uncovered any time soon. Don't get me wrong, I am not an anarchist or a die hard fan wishing to see complete destruction of banking sectors and government authorities. But I do believe that with time methods and practices should improve and those that innovate with positive results should be embraced. Needless to say that banking and corporate governance hasn't improved, it hasn't innovated and it certainly isn't going to change it's ways any time soon.
I personally think that cryptocurrencies such as that of bitcoin have a lot to offer the financial institutions and government departments that we have placed our trust in, wrongly or rightly, for the last 200 years. But they don't see it that way.

A few years before bitcoin burst onto the scene I was on the edge of establishing a new bank. One that would go back to the day of good old fashion banking, where hand shakes still mattered and banks were to be trusted. The bank would of been focused around that of the local community with each branch in effect being it's own entity. A less technical form of decentralisation. Over time I thought more and more about the options , the positives and the negatives. I thought about why did I feel the need to establish a new banking provider and then I realised why banking in the past (by past I mean the late 1800') had worked so well, it was because banks at the time worked with methods and practices that society were content with. They utilised the latest in technology to help provide to their customers the kind of banking that society demanded and I think this is what banks have forgotten, banks are there to provide a service to the people not for people to provide services to banks. They aren't there to bank roll our money or to use leverage on customer held assets. They are there to provide and advise whilst innovating to excel in their offerings. This is where I wanted my new idea on banking to come in, to provide to the people and to service their banking demands.
Then bitcoin came along. An innovation. An idea. One that would offer the ability to revolutionise the banking of old (which is also current) into a service that the people needed and demanded.
Bitcoin gathered a huge following in very little time. It burst onto the scene and in some cases made millionaires overnight. But like all new innovations they face hurdles they have to overcome.
Bitcoins hurdles have been numerous and right now I firmly believe that Bitcoins biggest hurdle is to overcome itself. Bitcoin is a revolutionary opportunity, but this is what it is, it is an opportunity to create something even better. Bitcoins future success lies in the simplest of all banking requirements; access. If you cannot access Bitcoin like you can conventional currency, then it cannot become conventional.
This is where the future success of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general remains.
It is just a matter of making Bitcoin accessible. It's great if you can become successful but if you cannot utilise that success in your own life then that success is limited.

The solution isn't actually that hard though, which is what this topic is centred on. Bitcoin is supposed to be the future of money, to be the competition to conventional currency but conventional currency can be easily accessed in two ways: via cash or via credit/debit cards. Now I am not saying we need to go and establish ourselves a mint to produce Bitcoins in physical form but if Bitcoin can utilise those same two methods then I believe Bitcoin and in fact any other cryptocurrency can become conventional.
Credit/Debit cards are already an easy option since the principles behind them are exactly the same as that of Bitcoin, they allow you to access your chosen currency in digital form to pay for whatever it is you would like to pay for. No physical exchange of currency needs to take place, transactions are done digitally. This is after all a similar fundamental of Bitcoin. So Credit and Debit Cards are the first Key.
The second is that of cash, a physical currency form. Now this again is fairly easy since you can take your credit card or debit card to an ATM and withdraw cash. Each time you do this you are converting your digital currency, let's say GBP, into physical currency. Your card stores this as Digital/Virtual GBP and the ATM converts this into Physical GBP. This is in effect the same process that needs to take place with Bitcoin.
Now, you can hold cards in any currency denomination in the world. Yet currency stored digitally is in effect only one form, digital. It is only when you as the owner need to access your funds or indeed just view your funds that that digital currency is shown in a specific denomination.
So Cash is the second Key and like all good things that we trust 2 keys are better than one. You know, we secure ourselves with 2FA? Well yes it was meant to be joke but probably not a very good one. Needless to say the principles in my argument are.
Now I have explained my point, this is where you come in. I would like to know members thoughts on current ATM manufacturers and their product offerings.
I mean it shouldn't be that hard, it is just combining a series of pre-existing technology. I saw a shoe recently that also toasts your bread! Not too sure why you would want a shoe that does that but still the principles of combining technology is pretty straight forward.

What are members thoughts on ATMs? Are there any goods ones on the market right now?
Which ATM would you like to be in your local area?

I thank you all for taking the time to read my extraordinarily long post but I hope it will have some benefit in discussions both current and for those to come.

All the best,

Dan