Bitcoin atm safety

Robocoin operators make money from these fees, which they charge for both buying and selling of Bitcoins. These fees are just one of the sources of controversy regarding Bitcoin ATMs; in Vancouver, the Robocoin operator had to hire a part-time chaperone to watch over the kiosk and prevent other traders from intercepting customers with the promise of lower-cost or free transactions.

The biggest hassle was in trying to get our money out from the Robocoin machine, selling the Bitcoin back to Bitcoin Agents. The process here was incredibly convoluted and opaque.

After logging back into the machine with my phone number, PIN, and palmprint, the kiosk spit out a receipt with a QR code representing the wallet address of Bitcoin Agents.

The idea was that I would use my wallet to send the Bitcoin value to the operator, with the promise that after receipt, the machine would dispense the equivalent in cash--minus the transaction fee. My mistake was in not paying a "miner's fee" after sending the Bitcoin to the operator.

This was a step that wasn't made clear in the selling process, neither by the Robocoin machine or my Blockchain app. The way I understand it now, transactions have to be confirmed by the Bitcoin network, with the data of that transaction being attached to new blocks of data that's generated by the mining process.

The data blocks keep a permanent record of all the transactions taking place in the network, but miners don't have to include your transactions in newly mined blocks. That's why the miner fee exists--it's a small fraction of a Bitcoin to incentivize miners to attach your transaction to their blockchains and therefore validate it. Merchants and operators typically require the arbitrary number of six confirmations before considering the transaction legit.

And the typical transaction fee So instead of the transaction being confirmed in the minute average it usually takes, our Bitcoin was lost in limbo for over a day. I sent a support email to Bitcoin Agents, and received a text message the next day they matched my name to my phone number, I assume from Mike Piri, the owner of the Austin Robocoin machines explaining the situation. Fortunately, Mike agreed to refund the transaction for exactly what I had sent to the machine, but by that time I was already on a flight back to San Francisco.

Was it foolish to give so much personal information and cash to machine? Our mistake was not understanding how Bitcoin transactions and confirmations work, and this test was an expensive learning experience. Still, we got a silly video out of it, and it's hopefully a cautionary tale about the risks of Bitcoin and experimental technologies.

We'll make fools of ourselves any day so you won't have to. Cutaway Millennium Falcon Model Miniature! The process here was incredibly convoluted and opaque. After logging back into the machine with my phone number, PIN, and palmprint, the kiosk spit out a receipt with a QR code representing the wallet address of Bitcoin Agents. The idea was that I would use my wallet to send the Bitcoin value to the operator, with the promise that after receipt, the machine would dispense the equivalent in cash--minus the transaction fee.

My mistake was in not paying a "miner's fee" after sending the Bitcoin to the operator. This was a step that wasn't made clear in the selling process, neither by the Robocoin machine or my Blockchain app. The way I understand it now, transactions have to be confirmed by the Bitcoin network, with the data of that transaction being attached to new blocks of data that's generated by the mining process. The data blocks keep a permanent record of all the transactions taking place in the network, but miners don't have to include your transactions in newly mined blocks.

That's why the miner fee exists--it's a small fraction of a Bitcoin to incentivize miners to attach your transaction to their blockchains and therefore validate it. Merchants and operators typically require the arbitrary number of six confirmations before considering the transaction legit. And the typical transaction fee So instead of the transaction being confirmed in the minute average it usually takes, our Bitcoin was lost in limbo for over a day.

I sent a support email to Bitcoin Agents, and received a text message the next day they matched my name to my phone number, I assume from Mike Piri, the owner of the Austin Robocoin machines explaining the situation.

Fortunately, Mike agreed to refund the transaction for exactly what I had sent to the machine, but by that time I was already on a flight back to San Francisco. Was it foolish to give so much personal information and cash to machine?

Our mistake was not understanding how Bitcoin transactions and confirmations work, and this test was an expensive learning experience. Still, we got a silly video out of it, and it's hopefully a cautionary tale about the risks of Bitcoin and experimental technologies.

We'll make fools of ourselves any day so you won't have to. Cutaway Millennium Falcon Model Miniature! Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Making a Working Ghostbusters Ghost Trap! Tested Presents The Rancor Project!