Venezuelan company located in Panama, Cryptobuyer, will install the first Bitcoin ATM in Costa Rica.
The cryptocurrency or digital currency released in 2009 has been slowly gaining ground as more and more people get familiar with how it works.
The only decentralized digital currency it uses person to person technology without the interference of a central authority. Each bitcoin is worth a certain amount, so for instance recently it has reached prices of close to $4000.00, the rate fluctuates but there is no fluctuation risk, because whatever you buy the Bitcoin at is the amount that it will be worth. Other advantages include convenience since being a digital currency all you need is to have access to the internet; also security, bitcoins system uses a particular protocol to keep everything safe; transaction fees are also very low among other things.
The technology that will be installed in Costa Rica at the end of September will allow users to exchange regular physical currency for bitcoins. There are only six of these systems in Latin America. The exact location of where it will be installed has not been defined, according to Jorge Farias, executive director of cryptocurrency they are still analyzing which will be the ideal place among three initially picked.
ATM’s are only one way systems, which means they only work for deposits of regular currency that is then converted to virtual currency.
Bitcoins are used and accepted by many companies as a form of payment, but large online sellers such as Amazon are still not using the system.
How does the bitcoin ATM work?
The user must have installed and configured a Bitcoin wallet on the smartphone. When the user accesses the wallet a QR Code corresponding to the wallet address is provided, this QR code is scanned by the ATM, the user then has to enter the cash equivalent to the amount of Bitcoins he/she wants to purchase, in a few seconds the balance of the wallet is updated.