Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: dbz4u on February 16, 2013, 11:23 pm
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Ok so here's the idea. You have a vending machine which has an lcd screen with a price ticker(obviously you would set the price, you're essentially your own bitcoin exchange now, you are becoming a company. People insert bills and coins to meet whatever amount they want vs the exchange rate. For instance if the price of a bitcoin was $10, and someone puts in a $5 bill, they get .5 bitcoins. When you have put in the amount you want and confirm it on the screen(total dollar amount plus BTC amount), it automatically makes a random wallet ID on an instawallet/ewallet that you prepick with an anonymized string and anonymized password, each 30 randomized characters(to ensure that whatever the fuck algorythm you use isn't cracked.
You get a receipt/certificate of purchase that is a one time print out, the login info is immediately destroyed from the machine to protect anonymity. Just like how it is now, once you buy it, you are responsible for your funds. Lose the receipt and your money is gone.
Thought's? Improvement's? Ways to bring this to fruition?
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Thoughts? I want to make the easiest, cleanest way to get BTC with absolutely no hassle IRL. I feel like a vending machine where you have absolutely 0 human interaction is the easiest way to garuantee safety. How can we make this happen?
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Yeah, it's a good idea, although if the whole randomized address could be tied into an email address instead of a slip of paper (kind of like how at a coinstar or a redbox you can input your email addy) that would make more sense. Maybe you should check out the forums at cointalk.org (clearnet) and float an idea or two there. Some of those people live and breathe BTC.
Personally, I'd just be happy if more banks were on board with funding BTC wallets. The setup that bitfloor has with BofA and CapitalOne is genius. If just a few more banks signed on to that service, bitfloor would be a much bigger player than it already is. The fee is only $1.50, and you just walk into the bank like you have an account there, fill out a deposit slip, make the cash deposit, and your money's in bitfloor. It's genius.
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Yeah, it's a good idea, although if the whole randomized address could be tied into an email address instead of a slip of paper (kind of like how at a coinstar or a redbox you can input your email addy) that would make more sense. Maybe you should check out the forums at cointalk.org (clearnet) and float an idea or two there. Some of those people live and breathe BTC.
Personally, I'd just be happy if more banks were on board with funding BTC wallets. The setup that bitfloor has with BofA and CapitalOne is genius. If just a few more banks signed on to that service, bitfloor would be a much bigger player than it already is. The fee is only $1.50, and you just walk into the bank like you have an account there, fill out a deposit slip, make the cash deposit, and your money's in bitfloor. It's genius.
Tell me more about that. Do i need an acc with either bank? Is there something similar for Wells Fargo? How does it work?
As for the vending machine the whole goal is anonymity. It automatically makes the randomized account and password so that you have absolutely no other interaction with the machine aside from putting in the desired amount of money. No identifying info is tied to the cash, it just prints a certificate and you access it on your time
EDIT: I took a tentative look at that site and i think i might just love you now. I will definitely be doing this as it is convenient as shit, however the anonymity part of the vending machine idea is still the best i can come up with and I've come at it from every angle
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Yeah, bitfloor is very cool. You can set up a Capital One P2P checking account (free) and fund your account that way, or you can make a deposit at any Bank of America branch. I live pretty close to a BofA, so I did the deposit thing just to check it out, and it's cool. You just write "Local Till LLC' for the account name, they give you an account number, and the deposit is whatever you want to put in plus $1.50. After that, it's like Mt. Gox in that you purchase BTCs from the money in your account. And, you can send BTCs from there straight to SR. I'm sure you just saw all of that for yourself on the damn web page, but I've been up all night, and I'm punchy.
The other thing about the vending machine idea is - where the fuck do you get BTCs to start with? I am still amazed that there are thousands of users right now just making bitcoins on their computers. I'm doing it, too, although my video card sucks, so I'm doing it slowly. But, I have a computer that does nothing all day but mine BTC. And, the more BTC that get "mined," the more difficult it is to mine them, apparently, and there's some new hardware coming out soon that will mine BTC at an incredible rate. You should really check out bitcointalk.org, as there are people there who have been doing BTC since way before it was cool, y'know?
Anyway, I love the anonymity of your idea, as well. I think it could really catch on. There are definitely a ton of people looking for good ways to turn cash into BTC. And, there are so many companies doing it wrong, I think the industry desperately needs for more entrepreneurs to get into the business with a solid business plan, and do things the right way. Best of luck.
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Yeah, bitfloor is very cool. You can set up a Capital One P2P checking account (free) and fund your account that way, or you can make a deposit at any Bank of America branch. I live pretty close to a BofA, so I did the deposit thing just to check it out, and it's cool. You just write "Local Till LLC' for the account name, they give you an account number, and the deposit is whatever you want to put in plus $1.50. After that, it's like Mt. Gox in that you purchase BTCs from the money in your account. And, you can send BTCs from there straight to SR. I'm sure you just saw all of that for yourself on the damn web page, but I've been up all night, and I'm punchy.
The other thing about the vending machine idea is - where the fuck do you get BTCs to start with? I am still amazed that there are thousands of users right now just making bitcoins on their computers. I'm doing it, too, although my video card sucks, so I'm doing it slowly. But, I have a computer that does nothing all day but mine BTC. And, the more BTC that get "mined," the more difficult it is to mine them, apparently, and there's some new hardware coming out soon that will mine BTC at an incredible rate. You should really check out bitcointalk.org, as there are people there who have been doing BTC since way before it was cool, y'know?
Anyway, I love the anonymity of your idea, as well. I think it could really catch on. There are definitely a ton of people looking for good ways to turn cash into BTC. And, there are so many companies doing it wrong, I think the industry desperately needs for more entrepreneurs to get into the business with a solid business plan, and do things the right way. Best of luck.
Honestly i was seriously considering kickstartering(that's a word now right?) it. You go over you're actual goal by X dollars (pick you're actual coin startup costs) after that you should be able to buy and sell on a daily basis to meet demand. You can always have a message saying that you are out of BTC for a day or whatever. It's a remotely run business, you just go to the machine's and collect the cash for the day when you're done.
Highest reward tier would be "Have a bitcoin vending machine setup in your local city at any mall of your choosing" or something like that. Helps distribution, and tells you where you're market is so you don't put it where no one will buy them
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Yeah, you could definitely kickstart that. But, first you definitely need a business plan.
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Yeah, you could definitely kickstart that. But, first you definitely need a business plan.
Business plan:
1. Start a kickstarter for this
2. make the highest reward tier "Have a bitcoin vending machine setup in your local city at any mall of your choosing" or something like that. Helps distribution, and tells you where you're market is so you don't put it where no one will buy them
3. Post on bitcointalks.org to drum up interest, and possibly get the community here to help(resourceful motherfuckers all of you)
4 Build said machine's with low cost hacking tools(someone's gotta do this for me, beyond my technical expertise), such as a raspberry pi programmable chip($35 per chip, I'm pretty sure it could handle simple functions like automated account creation)
5 Distribute machine's
6 Remotely monitor and adjust machine's pricing according to the btc market fluctuations, Which obviously changes the amount of btc automatically transferred to the account
7 ????
8 PROFIT!!!!!
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Check out this clearweb link :)
http://blog.maschinenraum.tk/2012/07/15/bitcoin-vending-machine-exchange-euro-coins-for-bitcoin-wallets/
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Similar. However it should just print receipts. Should have only a few things on the front, a price ticker, conversion rate, bill slot, and certificate printer.
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It's a cool idea, but I don't think it would succeed. Here's why: you need to build the machines and distribute them. Then you need to collect the money from every machine you distribute. Basically your potential customer base is limited by the size of your fleet. It's placing a major constraint on your entire business model, and it can't be avoided. It's a permanent issue. So while you're spending on this, the people offering a completely electronic service that serves the entire country are going to fly right by you in profits and viability.
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that is so true!! This can only workout if you tie it up with a big website like mtgox or they introduce it.
Then it would be the bomb!!
It's a cool idea, but I don't think it would succeed. Here's why: you need to build the machines and distribute them. Then you need to collect the money from every machine you distribute. Basically your potential customer base is limited by the size of your fleet. It's placing a major constraint on your entire business model, and it can't be avoided. It's a permanent issue. So while you're spending on this, the people offering a completely electronic service that serves the entire country are going to fly right by you in profits and viability.
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Id support this is the vending machine let you buy candy bars with bitcoins.
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It's a cool idea, but I don't think it would succeed. Here's why: you need to build the machines and distribute them. Then you need to collect the money from every machine you distribute. Basically your potential customer base is limited by the size of your fleet. It's placing a major constraint on your entire business model, and it can't be avoided. It's a permanent issue. So while you're spending on this, the people offering a completely electronic service that serves the entire country are going to fly right by you in profits and viability.
That's literally the reason i mentioned kickstarter. No actual costs to you, you get to make the community happy AND make money. I'm sure if it was a guaranteed sucessful project you'd be willing to throw 50-100 dollars at the opportunity to be able to buy bitcoins hassle free with no worries at all