Bitcoin ATMs Are Coming To a Gas Station Near You

A new feature has appeared at smoke shops in Montana, gas stations in the Carolinas and delis in far-flung corners of New York City: a brightly-lit bitcoin ATM, where customers can buy or sell digital currency, and sometimes extract hard cash. From a report: The machines have multiplied quickly through the United States over the past year, fueled by a frenzy in crypto trading that sent bitcoin prices over $58,000. Kiosk operators such as CoinFlip and Coin Cloud have installed thousands of ATMs, scouring areas competitors have not yet reached, executives told Reuters. "I just assumed there was demand and people wanted bitcoin everywhere," said Quad Coin founder Mark Shoiket, who flew to Montana after scanning a U.S. map for bitcoin ATM deserts. During a week-long road trip, he found seven places to install machines, including 406 Glass, a store in Billings, Montana, that sells tobacco, vape juice and colorful glass pipes. As of January, there were 28,185 bitcoin ATMs in the United States, according to howmanybitcoinatms.com, an independent research site. Roughly 10,000 came within the prior five months.

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[The Evil Atheist]

So gold is just another way for the rich to hoard everything until economic activity is no longer possible without their say so.

So why should I support crypto as a new attempt to become gold?

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[JonnyCalcutta]

'A quote is just words someone said' - Daisy Duke

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[The Evil Atheist]

People who bang on about the gold standard don't understand the concept of money.

If the gold standard was so great, then why was it possible to even get off it? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is ultimately people who decide what is value and what is not?

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[Synonymous Cowered]

Did any of you tulip autists buy during the last "crash"?

Nope. I don't gamble with my savings. I could've made more money in the last year buying GME

Current 1 year BTC return: 1100%
Current 1 year GME return: 5500%

But I don't gamble with my savings.

A fossil fuel seller

[xack]

Selling something that burns fossil fuels.

The USD burns fossil fuels...

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the USD? https://mises.org/library/how-... [mises.org]

Fees range from 6% to 20%

[Joe_Dragon]

Fees range from 6% to 20%

Re:Fees range from 6% to 20%

[Joe_Dragon]

and the IRS audit will cost you alot maybe even jail / prison time

Kind of Dumb

[Luthair]

Since even people who own the coins do so for speculation and generally leave them with the exchange not a personal wallet.

Re:Kind of Dumb

[algaeman]

Look at the target markets. I'm pretty sure they are counting on "kind of dumb".

Re: Kind of Dumb

[NagrothAgain]

They're targeting "smoke shops" i.e. places you go to buy your drug paraphenalia and "hook up" with someone who may be selling various illicit substances. If you look at the specific gas stations these go into, they're in "not so great" areas and are close to Bars or Casinos, in areas of town where the locals will tell you that you can "find whatever it is you're looking for."

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[rsilvergun]

I'm pretty sure they're counting on "drug dealer".

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[rogoshen1]

these are for BTC, not monero.

Can't pay a ransom if getting Bitcoin is difficult

[TheNameOfNick]

Business needs to make things easy.

Bitcoin is laughable shit.

[RightSaidFred99]

I own a bit, I just used it for a payment via bitpay. Shit took a fucking day to clear bitpay, and at least an hour to get enough confirmations ad the BTC level. The fee was ridiculous, absurd even.

It's shit, and the fucking clowns putting real money into it will get what they deserve, at least the suckers holding the bag. And I'm not even opposed to all cryptocurrencies it's just that Bitcoin, specifically, sucks ass especially hard.

I did another payment with Ethereum and at least that went through in under 30 minutes, though that fee/gas was also fucking ridiculous and it's shameful that "30 fucking minutes" is "much better" than anything.

Re:Bitcoin is laughable shit.

[ljw1004]

I own a bit, I just used it for a payment via bitpay. Shit took a fucking day to clear bitpay, and at least an hour to get enough confirmations ad the BTC level. The fee was ridiculous, absurd even.

I think of Bitcoin kind of similar to what gold bullion was during the gold standard. It took a day to ship physical blocks of gold around, and cost a lot in fees. So everyone actually used promissory notes instead. You see it in UK currency where a five pound note says "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five pounds".

Likewise with Bitcoin. You use Lightning (the promissory notes), and these are backed by Bitcoin reserves.

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[timeOday]

Right. So, are these ATMs actually exchanging bitcoin, per se? I don't see how that would make any sense.

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[feedayeen]

It'll be interesting with someone finds the right hard drive or flash drive and Bitcoin has it's own Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage moment. It'll end up full circle backed by fiat.

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[Xylantiel]

OK, but they are calling them bitcoin not "promissory notes" so that's fraud right? Nice how your counter to the point that bitcoin is useless as an actual currency is to just describe how bitcoin is useless as an actual currency. Gold does have some actual value as a raw material, but Bitcoin's only value stems from its potential as a currency. So if you admit it doesn't even have that...

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[bb_matt]

Yep.

They call it a replacement for gold, so I guess in terms of actually paying for stuff with it, that's a realistic comparison - try taking a nugget of gold into a shop and attempt to buy something with it. At least it's physical, right?
If the artificial gold price crashes, you'll still have some shiny metal, assuming you actually hold physical gold, rather than the promise of it.

I also own a bit, sold off most of it and after 3 years, actually got my original investment back - what a doofus I was for eve

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[AnonyMouseCowWard]

Misclicked the moderation, posting to remove it. On that note not being able to update your moderation blows.

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[inode_buddha]

Wanna have some real fun, try paying the Amish with bitcoin. For that nice new furniture set.

How much is any cryptocurrency gonna be worth if a natural disaster takes out the grid for 6 months? Or an EMP?

Typos costly

[laughingskeptic]

These machines have people type in the wallet address. This plus the hour wait for 3 to 6 confirmations ... what could go wrong?

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[RemindMeLater]

That's a great point. Who is going to accurately type in a BTC address on an ATM screen? The whole thing screams of a tax on the stupid.

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[PoopMonkey]

The machines seem to be often not working.

The machines frequently run out of tulip bulbs.

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[Xylantiel]

This is so far from how Bitcoin, or any digital currency, is supposed to work it is mindbending. The whole concept of a transaction is so broken as to be unrecognizable. A transaction should look like this: I set the cash or goods on the table and check that the bitcoin transfer to my wallet irreversibly succeeds at the same time you pick it up. Just like I set goods on the table and you set cash on the table and when I pick up one you pick up the other.

This whole thing appears to work more like a bla

Prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

These things will be about as popular as gas station sushi.

A gas station?

[OneHundredAndTen]

How quaint.

Alternate headline:

[thegarbz]

Art installation celebrating human stupidity to be put on display next to cigarette stands.

Quite fitting really.

If it is easy, people will do it

[invid]

If all stores (both brick and mortar and online) allowed for crypto transactions that were as easy as cash, you would see a steady and increasing percentage of transactions being done in crypto. At times when people are short on cash (or over their credit limit) they will be tempted to dip into their crypto supply. Over time it would because easier psychologically. But it needs to be as simple as cash, and nearly universal. If Amazon made a crypto currency and promoted it properly (special deals for items i

Mostly sitting idle

[mkwan]

Given that bitcoin is capped at around 600k transactions per day, and there are supposedly 28,185 ATMs in the United States, they can't possibly be doing more than 21 transactions per day, on average. Almost certainly they're doing a lot less than that.

The worst idea EVER

[slashmydots]

They should be legally required to call them "come here and get robbed" terminals. A place where you're guaranteed to be walking up to them with hundreds of dollars in cash? Are you kidding me? Also, bitcoins are over $20 in transaction fees right now and these ridiculous ATMs cost double digits in fees. You'd have to be out of your damn mind to not just buy them FOR FREE on coinbase pro or for unbelievably cheap on coinbase's main site.