Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
by Tyler Durden
While some investors are weathering the crypto storm confidently, many have jumped ship, but one group has proven resilient despite market conditions: Bitcoin ATM providers.
Bitcoin ATM installations Outpacing Traditional ATMs
As CryptoAnswers' Creighton Piper details, installations have gone parabolic over past weeks/months, as seen below.
Chart courtesy of CoinATMRadar.com via amCharts
136 Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) were installed during the market pullback alone, bringing the worldwide total to 2177 as tracked by CoinATMRadar.com. On average, 5 BTM locations spring up every day. This is just one more example of how the crypto ecosystem continues to grow, despite depressing market sentiment.
The United States still dominates the BTM industry with 1296 locations nationwide. This is a marked 30% increase since we last covered this development in October 2017. Canada and the UK follow with 340 locations and 109 locations respectively.
Top 5 countries: USA, Canada, UK, Austria, Spain
Bitcoin ATMs Expand Access to Top Cryptocurrencies
BTMs are beginning to pop up everywhere. Las Angeles alone boasts 165 units, and New York has 127. They offer quick, easy access to anyone needing to acquire and use Bitcoin on the fly. Transactions are instant, but this convenience comes at a price. Buying Bitcoin incurs a ~9% fee, while selling fetches a 7% fee.
In addition to Bitcoin, many locations offer Litecoin (905), Ether (332), and DASH (173) as well. Of the 2177 total BTMs, 944 of them offer some sort of altcoin support, and some of them even offer Dogecoin and/or Monero.
Privacy Issues
Until recently, fiat could be converted to crypto with nothing more than cash in your pocket. Personal details were unnecessary, and transactions could be made anonymously. This was great for innocent users to take advantage of, but it also allowed black market operatives easy access. Most BTM manufacturers are beginning to incorporate identification features now to comply with increasing regulation. Operators may opt to disable those features but are often mandated to use them. Some locations are still able to be used anonymously, but generally a phone number is required. BTMs remain the go-to resource for private transactions, however. Exchanges maintain an arsenal of client data, while BTMs do not. They help distance users from centralized banks and exchanges and keep private details safe. Anyone off-put by the phone number requirement can sidestep using a burn phone.
Final Word
Unfortunately, I was not able to find out how much Bitcoin is traded through these avenues compared to LTC, ETH or other offerings. That would be interesting info, as it would represent how raw use cases of top cryptocurrencies are evolving as their networks compete. As BTC network fees escalate out of control, I would imagine ETH and LTC are gaining on BTC in this respect.
At any rate, the confidence in the BTM market tells a different story than the exchange market. While currencies are subject to FUD and manipulation, ecosystem figures are immune. The best way to gauge the health of crypto in general is to look at real usage, adoption, and infrastructure growth. Fortunately for us all, that continues to be very much a growth story.
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@matroska61/bitcoin-is-melting
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I love Bitcoin ATMS for a simple reason: it brings cryptocurrency from the world of mysterious into something people can see. Even though they might not understand, the fact that they see a Bitcoin ATM, a device that issues money, means people will start to equate it with money.
This is something that we have needed. Each day people are getting more familiar with crypto. I am of the belief, at this point, any news is good news. Cryptocurrency needs all the publicity it can get.
We are about to enter a phase where people are going to get their first exposure to it. I would surmise that at least 20% of the people will be exposed to some form of crypto in 2018. While they might not be using it, they will somehow be introduced to it.
I think we will also see the number of people who use an app that is tied to a blockchain will also explode...even though the people might not know it is a blockchain.
Since the market started to tank a lot of really good news came out about further adoption and the technology is improving faster then ever since december. This bear market doesn't make sense at all exempt for being a part of the natural cycle. BTC is at a great sale right now!
Bitcoin ATMs soon to be hawked on ebay as a relic of a collapsed bubble. Sold as curios.
Broke down thru 6g overnite, on it's way to 2g, then 0. HODLer fools have been stepping in and 'buying the dip' at every 1000 on the way down; 10g, 9g 8g, 7g, 6g, etc.
Same thing happening with the shit.coms during the internet bubble collapse.
In the near future there will be a bunch of news stories/articles about the people that 'invested' in bitcon and lost it all.
That would be fucking awesome and also highly unlikely.
I never invested in Bitcoin but have always used it because it simply worked for every-usage...
Now it's completely broken... It's only a speculative asset and almost everybody knows it...
The only way people make money is either by charging fees to transact with it or else big market swings, where money is leaving one person's pocket and entering another...
Bitcoin is a fantastic invention and it will never go away until the last robot police has kicked down the door of a makeshift computer lab cooking up Bitcoins like it was crystal meth in a post privately-mined cryptocurrency world...
But don't be foolish, even when Bitcoin does eventually collapse (and it will), and is replaced with Central Bank Cryptocurrencies (because fiat will also collapse soon), there will always be privately-mined cryptocurrencies just as there have always been "counterfeits" in the real economy...
Even in money-creation, you can never really eliminate all the competition, no matter how powerful and predominant your banking cartel is.
I think one coin should be worth roughly one dollar and it should be digital cash. Pure and simple.
Decentralized, no banks, no ridiculous fees... Just digital, peer-to-peer, off-the-books cash.
The world needs that and anybody who doesn't understand that is asking for a world of pain.
Let's see what happen.
Dear @zer0hedge great article I've read about this and found that
Many people wouldn't start popping the champagne corks n celebration of this as sign of the publics growing acceptance of bitcoin, or that 'massive supporting infrastructure is being placed' (lol). In the UK bitcoin ATM's are springing up everywhere too, but they also have the notorious reputation for being used almost exclusively by drug dealers wanting an anonymous way to get cash on to the darknet markets to finance more drugs purchases, and I imagine it's quite likely the same phenomenon driving this surge of installations mentioned in the article. Who else is going to be prepared to pay those kind of fees, you all baulked at them!
"Bitcoin ATM Installations Skyrocket throughout market correction"
Well, those BTC ATM's are probably not laying on a shelf ready to be delivered at a moment's notice, and were probably ordered months ago when the hype was still alive and kicking.
and also These installations are for when people need to escape the fiat armageddon and take refuge outside the system in bitcoin. Won't be long now.
thanks for share @zer0hedge
Bitcoin ATMs soon to be hawked on ebay as a relic of a collapsed bubble. Sold as curios.
Broke down thru 6g overnite, on it's way to 2g, then 0. HODLer fools have been stepping in and 'buying the dip' at every 1000 on the way down; 10g, 9g 8g, 7g, 6g, etc.
Same thing happening with the shit.coms during the internet bubble collapse.
In the near future there will be a bunch of news stories/articles about the people that 'invested' in bitcon and lost it all. It seems that the Cabal is pushing hard for Cleptos to replace FIAT. At least with FIAT we are holding some paper to use in the toilets in an emergency... with Digital Cleptos you don't even have that.
thanks for information . great post
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@omerserhanozugur/turkey-s-first-bitcoin-atms-have-opened-at-atatuerk-airport-tuerkiyenin-ilk-bitcoin-atm-si
Turkey's first Bitcoin ATM
Very special publication
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Good post @zer0hedge
I'm new to cyrpto through steemit only and was not wanting to come for that reason. Now that I'm here my eyes are being opened to the many coins, blockchains and coins I had never heard of before.
Little old ladies like me have no idea you can spend cryptocurrancy. We think it is just some strange investment. Hopefully these machines will help the idea become more mainstream.
Now that I'm here - I am all in - even with the bad news in prices.
good post thanks for sharing...
this is awesome
thank you very much for the information post. happiness for us is that cryptocurrencies are growing!
best way to invest in BCATM companies?
Thanks for sharing this article @zer0hedge. It is interesting to see Bitcoin ATMs overtaking installation rates of traditional ATMs, although there are already so many ATMs in the world, that there is not a huge need to install many more, so this does not necessarily mean much as a statistic.
I used one of these a few years back when there was only one in my entire country. But I agree that there are now much more privacy issues with these Bitcoin ATMs. As their manufacturers try to comply with the regulations being imposed on the market, there are a lot of identification processes implemented, such as the mobile phone number that you mentioned.
Personally, I would not feel comfortable using a burner phone; I don't know why, but it would just feel like I was doing something dodgy, even though I wasn't!
Thanks again for sharing this update, keep up the great quality content!
The cryptosphere doesnt die just because the price takes a nosedive!
As you point out, businesses are investing heavily, the underlying infrastructure is still there, and the tech keeps marching on.
I outline all this in more detail, and reasons to be optimistic, in my latest post ;)
Think post literally changed my life....
Bold statement?
Because of this I started digging, reading up on local ATM's, clicked on a link and discovered there was actual BTC ATM's about 5 miles from my home LOL
And for the past few months I thought they didn't exist in the city I lived in!
It's over, I'm all in now lol :)
WOW.. The installations are on a high indeed. Five bitcoin machines springing up everyday gives hope to those that had started panicking. This shows that the falling Bitcoin will be shooting back up where we expect it to be.
We small investors owe our gratitude to USA, Canada and UK among many other countries spearheading the installations of the BTC machines for the invetsments they are making in bringing the cryptocurrency services closer to the people. More of this infrastructure is growing up and it's rebuilding the confidence back among the general public.
'The best way to gauge the health of crypto in general is to look at real usage, adoption, and infrastructure growth' This is what critics should use to analyse the state of crypto.
Such great news. It looks like bitcoin will dominate. I’m hearing about it everywhere now. It’s going to be interesting to see how fast this dominates. It could dominate faster than the internet. Blockchain is opening up new opportunities to create wealth. It will be interesting to see if they achieve a market outside the realm of banks and government. Blockchain is just a better system.
The bitcoin atm provider knows the future and as well as the banks. With cryptocurrency people do not need a bank anymore, reason why bank unite to crack down crypto. And those who sell there holdings these present bear run have lost everything. No Lambo anymore, just limbo...
Another news that shows that this "crash" that is being verified is only a correction of a lot of expectation from the end of last year.
I really believe this is what we are living right now in the crypto markets, because the same people that buy stocks are the exact same that buy cryptocurrencies, and the behavior is always the same...
How viable are they to use with the high fees and slow transfers? I want a Steem ATM
It great to see, and once there are ATMs dedicated to a handful of different crypto's we will really see some large scale adoption.
Bitcoin may be taking a trip down to 5700 but im hodling anyways and thinking about why I bought in the first place. Of course its worries me, no one knows the future. Going back and reading whitepapers helps me. Read rhe zcash one a while ago and it made me feel better.
I think better infrastructure if far more wortv than the current price. A bitcoin atm in every town like fiat atms is a wet dream for me.
Just think about this: its you turn to buy some crypto. What do you want to buy? Btc, eth, ltc or zcash? Choosing btc... Thank you, do you want something more? Choosing eth and putting it $15. Do you want to convert them into any erc20 token? Choosing yo put 7 of them in to BAT while keeping the rest as eth. Going away and checking the balance and the coins are of course there.
I used one of these ATMs to get bitcoin once. You set up an account beforehand, then verify your ID when you use the machine. Then you go to your account online and access your coinbase wallet, where you can send it just like any other bitcoin. I sent it to my personal wallet.
Between fees and unfavorable exchange rate I lost more money than I would like, but I've since doubled my original investment.
Bitcoin ATM installations Outpacing Traditional ATMs , this proves how popular btc is among the masses . Don't panic sell your crypto , just HODL .Prices will create new all time high in coming months .
Rise of btc atm's will bring in more people into the market .
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