To the guy who posted about possibly buying a Bitcoin ATM, I had a great idea a while ago.
I am currently writing Bitcoin ATM software whose hardware can be built for under $75. It is expandable, but, for all intents and purposes, this is the minimum: Raspberry Pi ($5) CH-926 coin acceptor (~$20, can be used with any country's currency, not just USD) Way to connect RPi to the internet ($7-10) 16x2 screen ($10) Casing (free to $5)
Nice addons: BV20 bill acceptor ($100, can be used with any country's currency, not just USD) NFC reader (~$10-15)
With these estimates, $50 is the max that'll need to be spent to build it yourself. Ideally, this would be sitting on a counter and loose change can be put into the machine, scan the Bitcoin address, and be done in under 30 seconds. The software isn't finished yet, but I need to add a couple more security measures, debug, and tie all of the loose ends together. It is FOSS.
who the hell are you going to market it to? Who is going to buy this sort of thing?
Liam Morales
I might make these in bulk, but I want to see if this idea has some traction.
Josiah Young
Literally anybody who runs a store. They can just keep this on the counter. There is an external program that needs to run to keep the Bitcoin wallet filled, but that shouldn't be that hard.
Cameron Jones
You think there is enough store owners that you could sell this idea to so that it would be worth the time investment?
Why would people rather pay the guy in bitcoin than in the normal way?
Why would he rather accept bitcoin than just keep the money in USD (or whatever currency it is).
Camden Gray
>You think there is enough store owners that you could sell this idea to so that it would be worth the time investment? Yes >Why would people rather pay the guy in bitcoin than in the normal way? They aren't. They take their spare change, put it into the machine after they check out, scan their address, and have the money sent to them. They aren't paying for anything with Bitcoin, they are buying Bitcoin off of the store in small amounts. >Why would he rather accept bitcoin than just keep the money in USD (or whatever currency it is). He doesn't accept Bitcoin. This is a deposit-only ATM that doesn't pay for anything bought at the store.
Juan Campbell
Hopefully some company will make these in bulk. If nobody does, and if there is interest, I will make them myself and sell them for around the $70 mark.
Jaxson Jackson
Can you make me one? How much to buy one right now?
Easton Jackson
They were just ideas about how a bitcoin exchange could work in a store.
I don't think you'd make a very good /hr rate. The time investment against money earned seems bad.
I think it would take so long to find anyone who would buy this product.
How are you marketing it? To a specific group? Where would you put it?
Jonathan Adams
I need to place the order for prototype parts before I call it done. I would give it a month.
I am not really marketing anything at this point. I want to make a prototype before I start with that.
You know bitcoin atm companies usually pay the shop owner a monthly rent for space for the atm?
Theres one in a coffee shop near me and they pay the owner £100 a month
Parker Wood
Don't those usually come with a percent taken out of the transactions (5% on buys and sells)?
Landon Moore
What would your fees be, OP? You might run into trouble with the loose change aspect, since a % or pennies is only smaller pennies. You need large transactions for an ATM to work. I think youre better off making traditional ATMs that charge a flat $4 rate
Andrew Phillips
OP of previous thread
This deposit only ATM is an interesting concept to me because of the relatively inexpensive entry. My main concern as an independent would be the security of a not well known developer.
Aside from that, your idea would not suit MY particular needs. My expectation is a 2-way machine that accepts bills (no need for small change) as well as dispenses them, with a currency recycle system. 3-6% is the fee that i am considering.
Jordan Morales
The rate is set by the operators of the machine, but I think a rate of 15-20% for transactions less than a dollar is about as high as anyone would go. A dollar and above could bump it down to 10%. The fees are determined by the operator of the machine.
There is an optional donation fee they can enable so the "dev team" can get a slice of the money (probably a percent or less).
To further cut costs, transactions won't be sent unless there is a minimum amount of transacted money (set at 60 cents now, but can be changed if need be), or 24 hours have passed. Transactions are saved to the disk to prevent scamming by power surge.
Isaac Fisher
This machine cannot do that currently. HOWEVER, adding this functionality shouldn't be hard and will probably be done in the not-so-distant future.
Julian Fisher
Yes but how much does yours charge?
Liam Butler
And how do you think it will stay secure, hm?
Any perp who knows what bitcoin is can rob one, crack it open, and empty that bitcoin wallet.
> inb4 uncrackable encryption
Ethan Parker
There is no set fee, that is entirely up to the owner. The owner gets 100% of their fee, and there is a separate fee they can enable to donate money to me.
Empty out the change every day, and don't keep too much Bitcoin in the machine. Whenever the ATM is offline, transfer all of the Bitcoin out of the wallet automatically and put it into another wallet stored securely somewhere. Encryption would work, but somebody who knows the key has to manually enter it every time it starts.
Christian Fisher
Also, I never intended to make the physical ATM myself, I just wanted to make the software so other people could physically build it. Ideally, you could attach a huge screen, make deposits and withdrawals, and make it weight 5000 lbs so nobody would steal it, but I wanted to make the bare-bones implementation cheap enough for somebody to buy one on a whim
Xavier Fisher
>I just wanted to make the software so other people could physically build it
Seems like you could potentially have a larger customer base if you offered a complete product yourself. Maybe the customer could pick every aspect themselves, but you would be the one to put it together. Just a thot
Jason Wright
It started out as just making the software and letting other people implement it, but making it myself could make everything cheaper. I need some more money before I risk it all with mass production.
Jaxon Evans
How much money Where are you located
Ian Cox
Accepting any currency isn't always wise because you have to convert them and you don't want to end up with a ton of falling currency. USD only in USA, EUR only in eurozone, GDP only in Britain, ignore irrelevant countries.
Sell higher than that m8
Chase Wright
I am not comfortable with giving out that information on Veeky Forums of all places, but you can shoot over some money to 1QKred5jGXzDS7jp8hmsBAxuwBVLzPpYNc if you feel nice
One machine isn't capable of accepting all currencies, it can only accept one nation's currency once it has been programmed.
Brandon Barnes
I might bump it up to $100, but I don't want to price myself out of competition (FOSS means anybody can assemble the hardware and sell it).
Cameron Parker
lol no doubt good luck
Jayden Roberts
If you want to check in every now and then for dev updates, the GitHub is updated pretty often.
