Bitcoin ATMs are Here to Stay
Are BTMs Just a Fad?
Bitcoin ATMs are just a fad, right? Here today and gone tomorrow?
Actually, to the contrary, all signs point to these cryptocurrency kiosks sticking around a long time. In fact, we expect that you’ll see more and more of them, to the point where they’re on nearly every street corner (well, that might be overkill, but you get the point!)
We spoke with Coin Cloud CEO and founder, Chris McAlary, to get his thoughts on the matter.
“Bitcoin ATMs are here to stay. There’s over 6,000 worldwide currently. They are continuing to grow every month,” McAlary says. “They continue to be well used and very successful. Bitcoin ATMs help people use crypto, make it easy to use, make it available to them, and it’s a real-world presence. It’s not just an online phenomenon. Bitcoin is in people’s lives being used every day.”
If you’re not one of the many people who have started using Bitcoin on a daily basis, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Maybe you’re not even sure how to start, but Coin Cloud can help you through the process. “Our customer support teams are talking to customers every single day, helping them download their first wallets or understanding how Bitcoin works, helping them find our locations,” states McAlary.
Is it Safe?
OK, so it’s pretty easy and lots of people are doing it. But is it safe? “There’s scams around payment options, whether it’s Western Union, MoneyGram, Bitcoin, wire; there’s all sorts of scams that take advantage of these payment mechanisms. Mostly because they’re one-way, meaning that it’s a push transaction. Once a transaction goes out, it’s very hard, if not impossible to reverse Bitcoin; like bank wires and MoneyGram and Western Union,” McAlaray explains. “So, these scams have been around forever.” But just because scams exist doesn’t mean you are likely to get scammed.
“Western Union’s still around, bank wires are still around. It’s just about having the necessary consumer protections in place to protect our customers, and Coin Cloud has very robust consumer protections in place. We have triggers on the machine with new first-time customers. We do a call to make sure that the customer isn’t being scammed. We’ll hold the funds before they’re irreversibly released in order to make sure our customers don’t lose money. And it’s incredible. We’re approaching seven figures now in how much money we’ve saved our customers in scams. So, we’re really proud of our customer support team and our compliance team.”
