Post: #1

Has anyone looked at becoming a Bitcoin ATM owner/operator?

Companies like Robocoin are selling them for $15,000 :

https://roboco.in/operator

Post: #2

(07-12-2014 07:35 PM)Steve9 Wrote:  Has anyone looked at becoming a Bitcoin ATM owner/operator?

Companies like Robocoin are selling them for $15,000 :

https://roboco.in/operator

Yes I did. Although there is cheaper models at around $5.000.

There will have to be a lot of trading on it to make it profitable.

If you put a 1% fee there will have to be $500.000 traded to make back your $5.000. You'll of course have much more expenses and might be able to put a higher fee. Though I guess would take a while to make it profitable anyway.

Buy and hold bitcoin is the conclusion I took after researching ATMs.

Post: #3

(07-13-2014 09:34 AM)Satoshi Wrote:  

(07-12-2014 07:35 PM)Steve9 Wrote:  Has anyone looked at becoming a Bitcoin ATM owner/operator?

Companies like Robocoin are selling them for $15,000 :

https://roboco.in/operator

Yes I did. Although there is cheaper models at around $5.000.

There will have to be a lot of trading on it to make it profitable.

If you put a 1% fee there will have to be $500.000 traded to make back your $5.000. You'll of course have much more expenses and might be able to put a higher fee. Though I guess would take a while to make it profitable anyway.

Buy and hold bitcoin is the conclusion I took after researching ATMs.

I completely agree with Satoshi's outlining of the relevant business considerations here.

This would be a business choice whose success correlates with the success of bitcoin, so buying and holding bitcoin would probably generate as much, if NOT more, profit(s) for the amount invested as compared with investing in a BTC ATM.

However, on the other hand, if you already have a high traffic retail location and a location that may be able to profit from the placement of a bitcoin ATM (a good-sized city that has quite a few businesses already accepting bitcoin or likely to accept bitcoin in the near future and without BTC ATMs already available), and/or you could envision ways in which the ATM could compliment traffic that you already have at your already existing retail location, then in those circumstances, you may find ways to profit from a BTC ATM.

Of course, a less tangible aspect is that investing in a BTC ATM would be good for the BTC infrastructure; however, most of us are NOT in a position to exercise such charity, unless he has already raked in considerable BTC profits and feels compelled to give back to the BTC sphere. Currently, there are some BTC angel investors who are of such a sentiment, due to their having had already profited considerably from past BTC price bubbles.

Post: #4

One positive thing about a machine like this is that you can probably get some free PR and press for having a BTC machine as there aren't any in my area but I'm always seeing twitter posts and stuff about oh new btc atm at this location. I think you'd get a lot of traffic just off the novelty of it.

This somewhat reminds me of the coinstar machines, I had looked into buying a machine from a coinstar competiro based out of Chicago, forget the name but machines were about the same price and you make the 9 cents out of every dollar.