19 April 2024
Bitcoin ATMs - Everything you need to know!
ATM has made the money transaction process - an easy and accessible procedure. Similarly we have Bitcoin ATMs that are also known as BTMs - Bitcoin Teller Machine. They cannot really be termed with the traditional ATM as with BTM - one can purchase and sell BTC with the transaction to fiat money, however, BTM looks pretty much like ATM. This concept or this machine of BTC is majorly used by the users who are not a part of the banking system, people who are not tech-savvy and people that are underbanked
The Bitcoin ATM consists of a monitor, a bill acceptor, a dispenser, and a QR scanner. The BTM is directly connected through the Internet with the cryptocurrency exchange. While all this is tied together to make its user’s transaction easy and secure.
The first BTM ever reported was in the year 2013 of October in Vancouver, Canada at the Waves Coffee Shop. However, it was later removed but this new concept of process paved its way for the companies to innovate and initiate the Bitcoin ATMs.
The Installation Growth of the Cryptocurrency ATM
Using the Bitcoin ATM (BTM)
- The first and foremost part of the process is to find the BTM near you. Many sites provide such services to help you locate the nearest BTM.
- Many BTM as per the manufacturer may have both the services or either one such as - both buying and selling BTC else, either selling or buying BTC.
- The user needs to have an ID which could be a phone number or any detail to access the BTC for the transaction. It depends on the operator and the machine about which detail is required to access as this helps to keep your BTC and transaction security.
- BTM mostly requires a phone number so that a One Time Password is sent for verification or else a few BTMs have BTM scanner that would require an ID card such as passport, driving license, and so forth.
Also Read, Everything About Bitcoin Wallet & Address!
Buying BTC
We’ll take Dollar as fiat money in the following process:
- You need to click on the “Buy Bitcoin” option.
- Verification of the Identity is required to access buying Bitcoin.
- You need to enter the dollar amount and slip in the dollar notes as designated in the deposit area.
- Post depositing dollar, the machine will either do the following things - send BTC to your wallet, print of your offline wallet, or BTC is sent to your email address.
- Initially when you start a BTC wallet, a paper slip is printed along with QR code. This code needs to be scanned to receive the private key and thus the private key is utilized to gain access to your wallet for the BTC that you have purchased.
- In case if you want the BTC on your pre-existing wallet, you need to scan a QR code along with your wallet address with the help of BTM scanner.
- And if you want the BTC to be sent on your email address, you would need to choose the email option and the QR code will be sent accordingly. Also many BTM services enable you to set a password for the encryption of your email.
The only thing to note is the price of the Bitcoin in the BTM will be considerably 5% to 10% high for reasons such as the maintenance of the machine, rent, charges, volatility, regulatory requirements, and so forth.
Selling BTC
- Firstly, you need to choose the option of Withdraw cash and choose Bitcoin.
- You need to enter the amount of BTC that you want to sell from your wallet.
- It needs to send it to the address or the QR that is mentioned on the screen of the BTM.
- Post the completion of the transaction, the fiat money is dispensed.
The only thing to note is that the selling price that is offered by the BTM is also 5% to 10% less than what the current exchange rate would be.
Other relative information on Bitcoin ATM
- In the USA, the operators need to make a registration under the Federal financial crimes enforcement network and also need to have the state-specific money transmitter license.
- Many types of BTM are available in the market such as - Genesis1 Bitcoin ATM, Satoshi1 Bitcoin ATM, Satoshi2 Bitcoin ATM, Lamassu Bitcoin ATM, Lamassu with Santo Tirso, BATM2 Bitcoin ATM, BATM3 Bitcoin ATM, BitAccess Bitcoin ATM, BitXatm Bitcoin machine, Robocoin kiosk, and Skyhook bitcoin machine
- While there are over 40 BTM manufacturers and operators - General Bytes, Genesis Coin, Lamassu, CoinFlip, BitAccess, Coinsource, Covault, BitTeller, Digital Mint, Localcoin, ChainBytes, and so forth.