Bitcoin Can Be Bought With Cash At Swiss Railway Ticket Machines (techweekeurope.co.uk) 63
In what is seen as a move that could help boost the spread of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency will be available to purchase from Swiss railway ticket machines starting next month. Reader Mickeycaskill writes: Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has more than 1,000 ticket machines and has partnered with regulated financial intermediary SweePay to distribute Bitcoin. Customers need to select mobile top up on the machines, scan the QR code on their Bitcoin digital wallet and enter the number of Swiss Francs, up to 500 CHF, in to the machine, confirm the offer of Bitcoins they receive then identify themselves using a mobile number and a security code sent to their smartphone. While the machine can pay out Bitcoin, for the time being, it will not accept payments made with the cryptocurrency. Furthermore, credit card cannot be used with the machines to buy Bitcoins, SBB is effectively providing a way to swap local currency for a digital version that can be used anywhere around the world, thereby bypassing unfavourable exchange rates"From 11 November 2016, customers will be able to obtain Bitcoin at all SBB ticket machines. Until now, there have only been limited opportunities to purchase Bitcoin in Switzerland," the company was quoted as saying.
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You were working towards a point and then undermined your argument with a bad example: Venezuela.
Yes, Venezuela is a shit hole. But in terms of economics it is plenty proximate to the wealthy nations because it has oil and that is easy enough to cart around. The reason Venezuela is a shit hole is not a matter of geography but its own self-inflicted politics (even if geography is part of the history that shaped those politics).
I would add that Norway, Canada, Australia are peculiar examples for the same re
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Neither does Saudi Arabia.
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These machines are just a way for the Swiss government to offload their bitcoins onto gullible members of the public.
Call me when they have machines that convert Bitcoins into Swiss Francs.
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Call me when they have machines that convert Bitcoins into Swiss Francs.
Actually.... I think it would be best just to have all retailers start accepting BTC and allowing you to pay extra BTC for up to 10% of your purchase back as cash at the time of purchase.
That way it's distributed.
Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
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If you have cash, [wsj.com]
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Of course as TFA points out Italy would tank w/o cash transactions because their grey market floats tons of jobs.
As to bad guys needing to move large amounts of money (the banking version of the "save the children" cry) as a justification for killing cash I have a two word answer: Gold bullion.
-nb
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And would owning gold bullion remain legal? We've outlawed it before, you know.
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the difference is if you take the cash out by simply not printing it then the supply is hard limited.
If you ban gold ownership that doesn't change that the BadGuys(tm) can continue to use it for untraceable wealth transfer.
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Germans [qz.com] use lots of cash as well. Not so much an issue of gray markets or tax evasion with them. They had a front row seat when index cards were used to round up the Jews. So when they raise issues of privacy, I'm going to listen.
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It is only money to the degree that you are confident that it will be accepted for something that you care about. Most fiat paper IOUs thus are excellent, even if imperfect, money to varying degrees.
Whether bitcoins are money at all depends on who you are and what your needs are; which is not to imply that bitcoins are valueless, only they fall short of meeting many persons' needs for money. (I own many things that hold useful value and might be exchanged, yet are not money.)
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I tried to put a $20 bill into my floppy drive to pay for my VPN service, but it didn't work.
Turns out that when I converted it to bitcoin, it worked! Yay!
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There are many bitcoin atms that accept bitcoin and spit out cash. https://coinatmradar.com/ [coinatmradar.com] 827 of them so far.
That is not true. There are 827 ATMs listed on the site, but many of them only sell bitcoins. Far fewer of them will buy bitcoins and give you cash. The reason is that when the ATM owner buys coins from you he assumes the risk that the transaction will not be confirmed and he will be out the money. When the ATM owner takes your money and gives you bitcoins you are the only one taking a risk. I glanced at their list of ATMs near me and looks like 1 in 4 or less will buy your bitcoins.
The other thing a
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You can send bitcoin far and fast, relative to an envelope full of cash.
Yeah, that might be useful too. There's no reason you can't do both. Just don't have the two machines physically in view of each other, or else a customer at one kiosk might look to see if there's anyone at the other, and then walk over cut out the middleman.
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Bitcoin is far from stable itself and vulnerable to fluctuations far more severe than real currencies.
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I send regular money over the Internet all the time using PayPal or debit card. That's how I'm able to pay for things online.
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Switzerland has recently had problems with its currency being very highly valued. I'm not entirely sure how BitCoin solves this, but maybe consumer-level currency exchangers in neighboring countries have been charging very high rates to exchange it to Euros.
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Isn't is equally likely that you will gain or lose value due to volatility?
Doesn't work out well when you need a specific amount of Swiss Francs in the future.
Stocks are similar - when dollar cost averaging into stocks (e.g., buying $100 per week) volatility is your friend, you'll end up with more shares of a volatile stock than a stable one (with same average price) over time. When you need a fixed income out of stocks, you get screwed by volatility for exactly the same reason (the math works out to gains/(volatility^2)). This is why the common wisdom for financial planning is
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Wont someone think of the children?
I'd rather people online didn't think of them.
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Volatility is a negative for most things most people use money for. So when enthusiasts for bitcoin strays into hand waving arguments about bitcoin being a vastly superior form of money, then it is correct to bring up volatility as a counterargument. (I am not claiming that the topic is simple as any one or two factors, but that volatility is one of the several important factors.)
To make this argument more concrete, a typical non-rich person should hesitate to ever accept a large contract/employment for b
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Vending machines that dispense precious metals, bitcoins or whatever do so are usurious rates. You'd have to be fucking stupid to want to use them. Especially for bitcoin.
If you are happy handing over volumes of sensitive personal information to buy bitcoins online, sure. Usually the bitcoin seller will want all kinds of shit like copies of your passport, drivers license, banking details, fingerprints, proof of your address via a scan of a recent service bill which was mailed to your address. This is the main reason I've stayed away from bitcoin; the vendors basically want everything that can be used for identity theft.
So... Why would anyone want to? (Score:1)
I have yet to see one argument for crypto-currency that out weigh the risks. The usual arguments being "OMG! The government controls the money!" and "Its good for buying illegal shit."
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