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Bitcoin Kiosks Coming To 5 Canadian Cities

dreamstateseven writes "Canadian Bitcoin enthusiasts will be able to exchange Canadian cash for the digital currency through a kiosk that's similar to an ATM. Bitcoiniacs says it has ordered five Bitcoin kiosks from a Las Vegas-based company called RoboCoin and intends to roll them out across Canada in the coming months, with the first machine expected to land in Vancouver in early October. The kiosks allow users to select how much money they would like to spend, insert cash into the machine and then scan a QR code on their phone to transfer the Bitcoins to their wallet."

22 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. BitCoins to cash by Arkiel · · Score: 2

    Wake me up when this happens.

    1. Re:BitCoins to cash by Another,+completely · · Score: 4, Funny

      *Or whatever their currency is called.

      Close. You were thinking of the fleury. Following the paper dollar notes being dropped from circulation in 1987, the public backlash led to derisive nick-names like "loony" for the new coins. This was resolved by renaming the currency by a popular vote on 26 May, 1989. Under the new system, 100 fleurys = 1 gretzky.

  2. Lacking faith in the currency? by Shoten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's interesting that they're willing to sell bitcoins...but not buy them. Sounds to me like they think that bitcoins will lose their value in due course. One could argue that they're only worried about the security implications of an ATM that gives cash in exchange for a digital currency, but if that were the case, then they'd have at least as much to worry about with just handing out bitcoins anyways (which aren't free).

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    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
    1. Re:Lacking faith in the currency? by edmanet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They have to buy bitcoins in order to sell them, right? While I don't see the need for a bitcoin ATM, I do believe bitcoin is useful to the internet economy as a good method for micro payments. If Paypal or Google created this crypto coin idea, people would probably be more accepting and the conversion rate to fiat currency would stabilize. That's my .0002btc

    2. Re:Lacking faith in the currency? by cOle2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you read the article linked, you will know that these machines will both sell and BUY bitcoins.

    3. Re:Lacking faith in the currency? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2

      And because they take cash anonymously, they will probably run into government harassment in the name of money laundering. I noticed bitinstant stopped taking money anonymously citing government pressure.

    4. Re:Lacking faith in the currency? by Hmmmnmnmnm · · Score: 2

      The word fiat means "by decree". A fiat currency is one that is decreed to have value by a government. Bitcoins derive their value by market consensus. They are the opposite of a fiat currency.

    5. Re: Lacking faith in the currency? by BrianGöss · · Score: 2

      Bitcoin is well suited to micropayments. Mike Hearn has a micropayment scheme in his Bitcoinj implementation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=244656.0 It's a rather elegant example of true innovation in this heavily researched topic (note that the NSF and DARPA funded research on digital currency in part to try and solve the massively high volume, low value transactions they anticipated the internet would require...for things like paying a very small amount for a very small but of content). Digital currency (pegged to the US dollar) used to be purchasable in the mid 1990's at a US bank. It flopped mostly because it came before anyone really did much payment via the Internet. The best private industry has come up with is the equivalent of handing over your private encryption keys (cc #) and putting a middle man in to skin off the top and attempt to control the fraud that results from this crazy design. If you want to truly learn something about the open source project called Bitcoin, take a look at btcedproject.org and the udemy course (you'll need an account...or you can login via Facebook like I just did here to post): https://www.udemy.com/bitcoin-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-crypto/

    6. Re:Lacking faith in the currency? by tftp · · Score: 2

      What transaction fee?

      THAT transaction fee. The one that is in practice necessary for anyone to pay attention to your transaction. Is there anyone in the world that owes you six confirmations of your transaction within ten minutes? Click on the link that I provided. You don't have to add a fee; and the miners don't have to service your request. It's not like they are a bank, with you as a customer. There is no contract. The rose-colored glasses are off; BTC is no longer a network of friends, and the miners are not doing it for fun - they are doing it for profit; why wouldn't they click a checkbox that says "increase my income?"

  3. Re:How about no? by iamnobody2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    these aren't going to be mistaken for ATMs, they take CASH. anyone who puts cash into a machine without knowing what they're doing deserves any risk they involved.

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    nobody's perfect
  4. Re:How about no? by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not fraud at all. They are not making any false promises. They say they will give you bitcoin in exchange for cash, and that is exactly what they do (less a modest commission I'm sure). It's not their fault if you haven't researched Bitcoin at all and get taken out by one of the swings in value.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  5. Re:Much like Gold by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Informative

    Gold is a safe haven not an investment.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  6. It will be interesting to see if they can do it by Karmashock · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The real trick here will be to get a two way system of CASH to bitcoins. From a physical untraceable medium of exchange to a digital one.

    Many governments of course have a problem with it. We'll see what happens.

    I am of two minds about it.

    I think the average person should be able to do this sort of thing. I also want the government to be able to track and trace this stuff if they really need to do it.

    I guess, I want there to be some way to track it but I want it to be complicated, time consuming, and generally not worth it unless they REALLY want to know. If there were some terrorists going to blow up thousands of people... I'd want there to be a way to stop that. But I generally want to be personally left alone to do what I want.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  7. And Slashdot still does not accept Bitcoins. by elucido · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Until we can donate with Bitcoins how serious should we take all these pro Bitcoin articles if the site itself doesn't trust the technology?

  8. Re:Much like Gold by egamma · · Score: 2

    Does anyone know if there is gold in Fort Knox still? Or is this one of those questions that isn't supposed to be asked or answered? If so, I apologize for asking it, but I'd be enlightened to know anything about this situation.

    147.3 million troy ounces

    And, if you don't believe the government, the Mint is audited by KPMG

  9. Re:How about no? by pla · · Score: 4, Funny

    This should be blocked by the government until Bitcoin is considered a legitimate currency, and therefore held to the same standards and regulations as an actual bank.

    These guys should be charged with fraud for this crap. These are not "ATM" machines. What they give out is not an officially recognized currency. What they give out is not even a stable currency (I've seen Bitcoin halve, then double, then halve in value over the span of a few days), and there is NO INSURANCE through the government if the entire thing goes belly up (don't tell me that it won't- that's not the point, I'm insured through the Canadian Government who will cover a small amount of money if something happens to my bank).

    The more I think about it, the more I think this is some seriously shady crap. You're basically trying to trick the public into buying into your currency and making them believe it's actually valuable for day-to-day use (it's not for 99% of the consumers). I mean, these machines sure as shit aren't going to have warning labels on the side that say "Hey, the market you're buying into could halve overnight, making your money worth half as much!". How many people actually using these machines are really going to know what they're getting into?

    This should be blocked by the government until Bitcoin is considered a legitimate currency, and therefore held to the same standards and regulations as an actual bank.

    You have mixed levels here. The "dollar" (Canadian or otherwise) does not count as a bank, and has no standards and regulations imposed directly on the currency itself.

    Now, if you want to demand that money-handlers/lenders/changers/etc dealing in BTC live up to similar regulations to those dealing in "real" money, hey, I would agree with you in spirit - Aside from the fact that those dealing in BTC will have a great deal of difficulty complying with AML regulations by design.

    But you should at least strive to make a coherent argument, rather than something as absurd as "all cows must get SafeServ certified".

  10. This sounds a lot like my ideas on cake. by earls · · Score: 2

    Everyone should be able to have it, and eat it too.

  11. Re:Much like Gold by Kosmatos · · Score: 2

    Help me understand. You bought gold, to protect your capital. But do you have the actual gold? Or do you just have a receipt that you own a certain amount, trusting that this document will be recognized?

    Even if you do have the actual gold, I'm skeptical about how much you can actually use it in times of need.

    --
    I'm your huckleberry
  12. Re:There are 5 Canadian cities? by tftp · · Score: 2

    I lived in Toronto for a while, but I never knew that it's the capital of Canada.

  13. transaction fees by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yep, you just hit on what I think is pretty much "key" here.

    When you look at all of the (often ridiculous) alt-coins out there on the exchanges, you realize developers can create a new one out of thin air, based on the source code used to design a previous coin, give it a new name, and voila - it's out there.

    The truth is though, investors are only buying the things because they're cheap (think "penny stocks" here) and because at least early on, it's possible to buy enough of the sum total of the coins in existence so you can play "pump and dump" schemes -- forcing the price up temporarily with big purchase orders, and cashing in for a tidy little profit when you sell them all off again ASAP.

    The online exchanges are more than happy to list these worthless "joke coins" though because they get a cut of each transaction, no matter what happens. As long as someone is willing to put in buy and sell orders, it's worth offering.

    Of course, bitcoin has established itself far more than these other alt-coins (perhaps simply the privilege of being first with the idea?), and is actually accepted as currency for a number of goods and services -- but the same thing applies. If you're helping the currency change hands, you're always earning a profit off the top, no matter if the coin's value is headed up or down. It's the best "investment position" of all from the standpoint of safely making a steady profit.

  14. Re:How about no? by moteyalpha · · Score: 2

    It is an effective model that others have followed sucessfuly. Insert yourself between the consumer and producer ( retail ) and take a share, then you have money for nothing. Is Master Card a currency? It is possible to establish a currency without state support, but that is how they make sure they get their cut. Whether it is fair or not to allow a state to siphon off value by printing money or not, it still remains that they will criminalize any behavior that would reduce that control. PayPal is another example, as well as others who have taken on the task of siphoning off a share of every transaction. I would guess they are stuffing money in the pockets of lobbysist like crazy, while bitcoin is not. It isn''t a dominant strategy, it is very much like an overly complicated barter scheme and companies pay too much to maintain their position at the public trough to allow any freeloaders on their freeloading .

  15. Re:digital currency? by somersault · · Score: 2

    Encryption is totally cracked

    What the fuck are you talking about? All encryption, ever? Or just Bitcoin encryption? Do you know what "cracked" means in this context?

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    which is totally what she said