Bitcoin automaat cash

I got into the train as soon as possible to try out this marvelous machine. I really wanted to deposit some of my euro bills I kept around ‘just in case’ for praktical or anonimity reasons.

1-2-3 easy steps and there goes my 50 euro bill. The device scanned a wallet address QR code on my phone, asked for euro bills and immediately posted a transaction on the public bitcoin blockchain. I took a photo of the confirmation ‘receipt’ on screen and my phone wallet app reflects the balance within one minute.

This service is not cheap. Most of the €5 it cost me goes directly to the company that took all the effort in getting the device there so I don’t blame them for charging a fee. Only a small fraction of this €5 is actually the bitcoin network fee!

A note on fees: In december the immens hype and bitcoin price increase caused congestion on the bitcoin network causing the fees to spike above $25 and verification times longer than an hour making it indeed impossible to pay for a coffee. Times have changed, according to Bitinfocharts the transaction fee has dropped below 10ct and much has been done to significantly speed it up.