Where We Went Wrong Buying a Bitcoin from an ATM

Buying the Bitcoin from the Robocoin ATM was at least a straightforward process. It happened like you saw in the video—I had to create an account with the Bitcoin Agents through the Robocoin machine, giving it my telephone number (for SMS verification), creating a PIN, scanning my palm, letting it take my photo, and then also scan a copy of my driver’s license. That’s a whole lot of personal information, which in retrospect was pretty stupid of me. Bitcoin Agents holds on to that identification data to comply with government anti-money laundering laws, but there’s no promise that they can’t be hacked or won’t use that information for suspect ventures in the future. Anecdotally, my identity hasn’t be stolen yet, but I have received on average one strange telemarketing call a week since signing up for Robocoin—the first of which was from an adult chat service just hours after giving the Robocoin machine my phone number.

There’s also the matter of the transaction fee, which for one Bitcoin (~$617 at time of purchase) was $38, or over 6%.

Can you feeeeeeeel the FREEDOM