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8 or so years ago in uptown manhattan you'd see these btc ATMs in shady bodegas that I was convinced were being used for laundering money back, unless the frequ
by boredumb 4y ago
8 or so years ago in uptown manhattan you'd see these btc ATMs in shady bodegas that I was convinced were being used for laundering money back, unless the frequenters of the surrounding methadone clinics were more astute investors than what I assumed.
- martinald 4y agoSame thing in the UK. Groups of very suspect looking people feeding loads of cash into them in small grocery shops. I think a lot of them actually stopped doing it because the ATMs themselves were becoming a huge crime target, with so much cash in them and not particularly hard to remove.
- from 4y agoWould you mind describing what "very suspect people" look like?
- walthamstow 4y agoI was likely one of them and I can confirm we were very shifty looking. Mostly because we couldn't believe laundering money was this easy and surely the police will jump out at any moment (they never did)
- pavlov 4y agoNavy-blue Armani suit, garish yellow Bitcoin necktie, and a Thiel Foundation lapel pin. Beware of geeks bearing libertarian currencies.
- michaelt 4y agoEh, I always assumed bitcoin ATMs just looked for the stores that do things like Western Union, lottery tickets, parcel drop-off etc - i.e. businesses who want a secondary revenue stream which gets people into the store.
- from 4y agoWhich is in fact the exact same thing that regular ATM operators do.
- paulette449 4y agoMy local bodega (Brooklyn) has one, installed in the past year IIRC. I've never seen anyone using it.
- meltyness 4y agoI thought the future was here, and it is, but for some reason it's on sale somewhere between not at all, and a 24% markup. Apparently lucrative, or maybe not. I'm not sure how to read that if that's reflective of their costs, wishful thinking, preying on the inattentive, or all of the above.