Tag Archives: manufacturers

Bitcoin ATM market concentration

Statistics, ,

Bitcoin ATM industry is relatively new, however, it develops very dynamically. There are many new players entering the market, at the same time there is definitely a trend of some major participants increasing their machine networks size. In this article we evaluate how high is the concentration in bitcoin ATM industry w.r.t. manufacturers and operators. For assessment we look at top 3 countries with highest number of bitcoin ATMs installed: United States of America, Canada and United Kingdom.

Concentration indexes

For the purpose of this article three types of indexes are used:

  • Concentration ratio 3 (CR3) – market share controlled by top 3 manufacturers or operators;
  • Concentration ratio 5 (CR5) – market share controlled by top 5 manufacturers or operators;
  • Herfindahl index – is a concentration index, which is calculated as a sum of squared market shares, and gives more weight to the situation with dominance of a single or small group of companies.

Continue reading →

Bitcoin ATMs 2016 recap, trends for 2017

Bitcoin ATM, ,

Another year has finished. Now it has been a little more than 3 years since first permanent bitcoin ATM installation in Vancouver. What has year 2016 year brought to bitcoin ATM industry, what has changed, what are the latest trends…

Geography

Bitcoin ATMs are installed around the world, however, most of them have high geographic concentration. The following chart illustrates bitcoin ATM installations split by continents for the last 3 years (year end is taken as a data point for each year):

Bitcoin ATMs by Continent

Latest data can be found on the charts page.

As it is seen North America was always dominating the market with 51% share in the end of 2014, and it grew constantly over years and reached 73% in the end of 2016.

Due to expansion of Canadian and mostly US market, Europe has lost 9% share over the same period and is at 20% of world installations currently. All the rest continents have very insignificant number of bitcoin ATM locations with a total of ~6%. In 2014 their share was ~20%.

Continue reading →

General Bytes introduced a new bitcoin ATM model – BATMThree XXL+

Bitcoin ATM, Review,

Bitcoin ATM manufacturer GENERAL BYTES announced availability of their BATMThree XXL+ model.

The XXL+ is the latest model based on the GENERAL BYTES BATMThree Bitcoin ATM platform and as the name suggests its also currently the largest ATM in the BATM range of cryptocurrency ATM’s.

BATMThree XXL+ General bytes bitcoin ATM

What makes the XXL+ model special is the huge banknote capacity and the fact that it is specially equipped for servicing by armored money transport services, providing Bitcoin ATM operators with more freedom of choice in how to organize their day-to-day business.

Continue reading →

Bitcoin ATM settings for hot wallets and exchange integrations

Bitcoin ATM, Operating bitcoin ATM, Review, , ,

In the previous article we covered exchange and counterparty risks of operating a bitcoin ATM and two general ways to do it: sell bitcoins from your hot wallet, or do mirror deals via bitcoin exchange.

In this post we look at what system settings are supported by main bitcoin ATM providers, namely: Lamassu, General Bytes and Bitaccess. Other large supplier of bitcoin ATMs — Genesis Coin was reached but didn’t provide details about their setup options.

Lamassu

lamassu

Lamassu bitcoin ATM has an open source code. This allowed different developers to take the code and build software upon it. E.g. Dash implementation is done by external party, Ethereum was also implemented by external party first and later on Lamassu added their own version of ETH official support.

Based on information provided by Neal Conner (Customer Service Manager) Lamassu bitcoin machines support the following settings currently:

Continue reading →

Bitcoin ATM review: Satoshi2 model from Genesis Coin manufacturer

Bitcoin ATM, Review, , ,

There is a number of different bitcoin ATM types on the market. Operators need to choose a proper solution before starting a bitcoin ATM business. The machine needs to fit their requirements at best.

We have reviewed several bitcoin machines in previous posts, you might be interested in looking at the following posts:

Genesis Coin bitcoin ATMs
Genesis1 and Satoshi1 bitcoin ATM models

This post is dedicated to Satoshi2 model from Genesis Coin, which is a third generation model of its product line (this model can be called “Satoshi2” or “two-way Satoshi1”, which refers to the same product). The first generation model Genesis1 was a large bitcoin machine similarly looking to many traditional bank ATMs (it uses Genmega hardware), which supported two-way operations. Later company launched lighter version – Satoshi1, this machine was smaller, but with large 21″ screen. It supported only buy bitcoin operations.

Continue reading →

Bitcoin ATMs in the U.S.

Bitcoin ATM, Statistics, , , , , ,

Visit the following page to find all bitcoin ATM locations in the U.S.

Bitcoin ATMs are spreading quite fast since the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016. Although the most useful application of bitcoin machines could be in the developing countries where financial inclusion is low, the majority of bitcoin ATMs are still appearing in developed countries.

Quick look at bitcoin ATM aggregated stats shows that 63% of all bitcoin machines are in North America and 25% are in Europe. Taking into account 5% in Oceania (mostly Australia) means almost 95% of all machines are in developed countries. There are several reasons for this. Costs for bitcoin ATMs might be quite high for average businessmen in developing country with respect to risk of operating and running it. Also return on investment required can be achieved only in locations with relatively large user base and steady bitcoin usage (mostly in developed countries as of now), which results in transaction volume for such machines.

Bitcoin ATM in the U.S.

Leading country within the developed countries list with respect to bitcoin ATM adoption is the United States. As of the end of March 2016 it has roughly 280 bitcoin ATMs installed across the country, which comprises ~45% of all installations worldwide.

Continue reading →

Bitcoin ATMs industry overview after 2 years since first launch

Bitcoin ATM, Fees, Profitability, Statistics, , , , , ,

It’s been two years since the first bitcoin ATM went live in Vancouver, Canada on 29th October 2013. So what has been achieved over this time and what are the current dynamics of this newly evolving market?

As it is seen on the following chart number of bitcoin ATMs is steadily increasing. However, the speed is lower compared to the first year. During the first year there were 284 bitcoin ATMs installed and in the second year only 187 new bitcoin ATM locations were added and not removed later. This is lower than we forecasted a year ago based on the growth rate of traditional bank ATMs in the beginning of 70-s. It was calculated that there will be about 562 bitcoin ATMs installed by this time, however, there are only 471 in the world.

Continue reading →

BATMThree bitcoin ATM from General Bytes

Bitcoin ATM, Design, , , ,

General Bytes has introduced a new bitcoin ATM BATMThree recently. This is a long expected two-way machine from this manufacturer, which will support buy and sell operations at the same time.

BATMThree bitcoin ATM

The software was developed before and provided to the operators of Robocoin kiosk as a replacement kit, so it was a matter of creating the hardware for the own product. The new machine has a very slick design with neon lightning, which will definitely attract attention of walking by people.

The bitcoin machine has a nice big touch screen, which looks much better than the screen of the previous models. Continue reading →

How to choose a bitcoin ATM

Bitcoin ATM, , ,

There are many different bitcoin ATM providers on the market. If you plan to operate a bitcoin ATM, it is a hard choice which one to purchase.

On our site the full list of bitcoin ATM suppliers is available. It includes also the ones, which don’t even have a bitcoin ATM installed, however at least the prototype was provided to get listed.

You can also find many examples of bitcoin ATM profitability as well as bitcoin ATM profits calculator.

Choose bitcoin ATM

Beware of the scam!

As in many business areas closely related to Bitcoin, there are many scam players trying to cut easy money from new comers or the very risky people. As an example, the Moolah story can be used – the company notably known for Dogecoin support. Alex Green, who as it turned out, had several other names, was promising to deliver a bitcoin ATM to the market, which actually never happened. Finally, he disappeared with funds invested into the company and being at an exchange.

Continue reading →

General Bytes Bitcoin ATM review

Bitcoin ATM, Profitability, , , ,

In the previous article we provided a review of Genesis Coin Bitcoin ATMs. In this post we review another bitcoin ATM more compact one from a Czech company General Bytes.

Overview

BATMTwo Bitcoin ATM

General Bytes ATM

  • One-Way Bitcoin ATM
  • Price 2849 USD, Free shipping
  • Sells coins from wallet or exchange
  • Point of Sale integrated
  • Remotely manageable and upgradable
  • Multilingual (English, Česky, Deutsch, Español, Français, Hrvatski, Italiano, Nederlands, Polski, Pусский, Slovenčina, 中国的)
  • Fiat Multicurrency (more than 120 including USD, EUR, etc)
  • Crypto Multicurrency (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin)
  • AML/KYC integrated (Fingerprint or SMS)

Technical specification

  • Dimensions: 32x38x27 cm
  • Weight: 20 kg
  • Material: 2mm iron
  • Display: 7” projected capacitive
  • Mounting options: Designed to be mounted on wall (mounting screws and tools are included)
  • Internet connectivity: WiFi (b/g/n) + Ethernet 100Mbit
  • Cash box capacity: 500 bank notes
  • Security: Two high security standard locks. One for main doors, second for cashbox.
  • Warranty: 1 year

Buy Cryptocurrency Process

The process of purchasing cryptocurrency in this type of machines was described recently. It is important to note that the machine supports several cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin – but also has an extensible API, which can be used to add any other cryptocurrency.

Another important feature of this machine is convenience for the users: the purchase may be done to existing wallet (you need to scan QR code), but also it can be purchased using email address only. In this case all the needed information will be sent to the user by email in encrypted form.

There is a convenience for the seller as well, while the machine supports both: sale from the wallet or sale from the exchange (means eliminate the volatility risk). Supported exchanges are: Bitstamp.net, Coinbase.com. Supported wallets are: Blockchain’s My Wallet, Bitcoind, Litecoind, Dogecoind, Block.io, Coinbase.com, Coinkite.com.

The following videos illustrate both processes:

POS functionality

General Bytes Bitcoin ATM by default supports POS functionality. That means if you install this machine in the shop, restaurant or any other business location, it can start accepting Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) as a payment method without need to purchase any other hardware, software or integrating with any other third-party service.

The POS functionality is displayed in this video:

KYC/AML compliance features

The machine’s hardware and software supports the following ways of customer identification:

  • By SMS
  • Scan ID document
  • Fingerprint scan

Based on the provided identification – the transaction limits can be set up.

KYC/AML features are illustrated in the following video:

Remote management

Most of people don’t think about this when they are purchasing the machine, but they will realize that they need remote management when they start operating the machine. If they want to operate more than one machine, then remote management is absolute must.

Bitcoin ATM machine is not just about one time cost, maintenance costs are also very important. And remote management lowers maintenance costs dramatically.

Here are several use case scenarios what can be done with remote administration:

  • Is the machine online? Is it working? – You can check that on server administration web.
  • You can define the price settings flexibly without visiting the machine.
  • End customer has the problem with the machine, something went wrong.  He calls to support, you can check the status of his transaction on the server administration web (possible reasons: for example, Bitstamp connectivity problem, customer scanned different Bitcoin address than he thought that it scanned). You can even see which banknotes he inserted, how he navigated over the screens, etc.
  • You as an operator get sms or email notifications when: transaction occurred, machine is offline for more than an hour, when your exchange balance is low, when there is too much cash inside of the machine.
  • You upgrade the ATM software remotely from the server.

Price

This bitcoin ATM has a reasonably low price compared to other providers. A one-way BATMTwo machine costs $2849 with free shipping.

Another Bitcoin ATM with low price is Skyhook Bitcoin machine, which costs only $999. There is a trade-off between these two machines, while General Bytes is more feature rich out of the box, support many currencies by default, has POS integrated and more rich KYC/AML components. Also the unit itself is more solid and reminds more of the Lamassu machine.