Quote:
Originally Posted by mayabong
Because getting bitcoins is a pain, unless you have a person in your area selling. If I can just go down the street, put in a 100 bill and have bitcoins instantly in my wallet, thats 100000x better and many people using bitcoin feel the same way I'm sure. It would also make people spend more into the economy, since they can replace whatever they just spent pretty quickly.
|
ATM theft and fraud is HUGE, in the BILLIONS - the only reason ATM's are around is because the banks are so fucking rich that they can absorb the huge losses.
Those owning and operating Bitcoin ATM's won't last long, they won't be able to eat the losses to fraud/theft.
Converting bitcoins to cash safely and easily will be a huge obstacle. Putting your trust in 'exchanges' that are totally unregulated is about as high risk as you can get.
What happens when/if bitcoins really do take off - when there are thousands of retailers online who accept them for expensive hard goods like computers? For example, I buy a $2,000 computer from some online merchant with bitcoins and get scammed, they take my bitcoins and don't ship me a computer. With a credit card I can do a chargeback, with Paypal I can do a dispute and win, with a check or wire I at least have hard evidence to use in court - what does the customer who uses bitcoins show in court to prove he sent $2,000 in bitcoins - is there a printable proof of transaction that will identify the user I sent the $2,000 in bitcoins to?
I got interested in bitcoins because I could see its' place as an anonymous digital currency for the underground online economy. This hype we're seeing now is about going far beyond that and there are going to be huge pitfalls along the way.
Also, I am pretty sure that ATM's would fall under some regulation in any country. You can't even operate a hotdog cart without a license and inspection. So with a stroke of a pen any government can shut down the bitcoin ATM industry.