Bitcoin ATMs appear in Santa Fe | Local News

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This is the year of the Bitcoin ATM in Santa Fe.

Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, is still a hazy concept for many. But all of a sudden, Santa Fe has at least 18 Bitcoin ATMs, where you can buy and sell the currency online. Most were installed on June 30 at Allsups convenience stores.

Unlike standardized government currencies, Bitcoin is an anonymous, decentralized currency that does not need a third party like a financial institution. It’s a digital currency with computers tracking transactions, said Reilly S. White, associate professor of finance at the University of New Mexico, who has published two recent papers on cryptocurrency.

White said some 5,000 cryptocurrencies around the world were worth $ 1.3 trillion, with a cumulative value of Bitcoins estimated at $ 602 billion. He added that the average user’s wallet is filled with around $ 8,000 in Bitcoin.

The arrival of street-level Bitcoin ATMs, White said, means cryptocurrency is becoming part of the public consciousness.

The ATM increases the accessibility and visibility of the business, White said. This makes it easy for the average person to be exposed and buy cryptocurrency. A separate question is: does it make sense to do this or not? It is not certain that it makes sense to invest in cryptocurrency at this time. I cannot go out and say it will be zero or $ 500,000. Because the market is so volatile, we don’t know it yet.

Santa Fe got its first Bitcoin ATM around October 2020, but the devices have been popping up in other cities for the past six or seven years.

As recently as 2015, the only Bitcoin ATM Michael Garfield could find in Austin, Texas was in an armory. He bought around six Bitcoins while each was worth around $ 700. Now, a Bitcoin is worth over $ 30,000 and the rate is displayed in real time on ATMs.

Bitcoin transactions involve pieces of paper and online accounts protected by a passport. Some people have lost large sums of cryptocurrency because they forgot their passwords, while others, like Garfield, have lost their ATM slips.

A much bigger regret for Garfield was selling five Bitcoins for rent and music production software.

I’m living with the cryptocurrency bug I sold in 2016, which is now worth half a million dollars, said Garfield, social media strategist and podcast producer at the Santa Fe Institute.

Bitcoin and dozens of other cryptocurrencies have attempted to mainstream in recent years after spending nearly a decade on the fringes of the internet. The ATM has been one way of doing this, allowing people to deposit coins in exchange for virtual currency typically, a tiny fraction of a Bitcoin, or many other cryptocurrencies.

One company, Coin Cloud, installed its 2,000th Bitcoin ATM in late June and owns nine at Allsups convenience stores in Santa Fe. Coinme has equipped 13,000 Coinstar and MoneyGram machines with Bitcoin ATM technology, including ATMs Coinstar at Santa Fes Albertsons / Market Street and Smiths Food & Drug stores on Cerrillos Road.

Some people don’t even have a bank account, Coinme spokeswoman Delia Mendoza said. It is a solution for these people.

About 15 people made transactions at the Bitcoin ATM installed in mid-June at New Method Dry Cleaners on St. Michaels Drive, including owner Laurence Romero. He said some people come just to use the Bitcoin ATM, but a few have become new dry cleaning customers.

Coin Cloud contacted me, Romero said. They pay rent to be in space. I bought Bitcoin. I can look [the rate] go up and down every day. It’s like an investment. I looked them up online. They are legitimate.

The Bitcoin concept was introduced in 2008 by an entity called Satoshi Nakamoto, an as yet unidentified person or group of people. A limit of 21 million Bitcoins has been set. So far, over 18 million Bitcoins are in circulation, each now worth around $ 32,000 after floating around $ 500 in 2016.

Bitcoin remains the largest player in the cryptocurrency arena, accounting for about half of the cryptocurrency market, but Bitcoin ATMs offer around 30 different cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin was created to be a peer-to-peer electronic transaction system for buying things from people who accept Bitcoin. But Bitcoin has evolved into being primarily an investment, as the value of a Bitcoin fell from 6 cents in 2010 to around $ 300 in 2015 to $ 63,000 earlier this year. Some predict that Bitcoin could reach up to $ 500,000 by 2030.

I wouldn’t buy anything personally with my Bitcoin, maybe never. It’s an asset, said Renae Moreschini, dentist and owner of Ahh Dental in Santa Fe.

She started accepting Bitcoin as a payment method about six months ago around the same time she started buying Ethereum cryptocurrency, but none of her patients have used the cryptocurrency to pay for her. dental bill, Moreschini said. She has not done any advertising or signage to announce that Ahh Dental accepts Bitcoin, mainly because, like so many companies, it is understaffed.

Moreschini has known Bitcoin since 2012, but did not study it closely until the pandemic closed a year ago, when she had some free time.

I watched the MIT lectures on YouTube, Moreschini said. After getting all this information, it was obvious to me. There are a lot of people who have trouble getting change in different parts of the world. We must try to find ways to have more freedom in financial transactions.

Moreschini does not plan to use a Bitcoin ATM as it conducts its cryptocurrency transactions through the Coinbase Pro app.

I think they’re good, she said of ATMs. It’s good for people who travel and just want to transfer money from other parts of the world.

Garfield, the Santa Fe social media strategist, said he no longer uses an ATM as he conducts his cryptocurrency transactions with the app.

I don’t know who uses [Bitcoin] No more ATMs, he said. I think these cases are people familiar with ATMs and unfamiliar with applications. My feeling is if you want to buy this is a reasonable way to do it. But you pay a fee. If someone is comfortable with apps, it’s easier than ever to do it.

Daniel Sandoval, owner of AppleCore in Santa Fe, started buying Bitcoin in 2014 for $ 11 a month, which he continues to do today. He accepts Bitcoin as a form of payment, but said customers do not use cryptocurrency to purchase his products.

No one wants to pay with Bitcoin because it’s like gold, Sandoval said. In fact, I own quite a bit of Bitcoin, more than one Bitcoin. I educate people. My goal in 2014 was to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible. There are a lot of people who have made money. But a lot of people have lost a lot of money. I am neither. I understood it was a long-term game. I think I have found the best way to do it. You buy $ 11 per month.

Sandoval is wary of Bitcoin ATMs because the holdings are linked to a paper receipt.

It is very important to secure it properly, said Sandoval.

White, the UNM professor, said the pandemic inspired major institutions to make large purchases of Bitcoin, including Tesla and many investment firms, as well as numerous reports that Walmart was considering a huge buy. .

As late as 2020, the price of Bitcoin was as low as $ 7,000 and in April it soared to $ 63,000. Volatility has been a hallmark of Bitcoin from the start.

But Garfield believes volatility flattens with public and institutional interest in Bitcoin.

A lot more people are getting started, Garfield said. Because so many players are in the game, the volatility has been mitigated. The risk and the payoff have diminished. There is downward pressure because there is so much institutional interest.

Still, White warned, the buyer is wary.

Do your research before you buy, White said. Research like you do with anything you buy. It really is money that you give up. These values ​​can go down as well as up.

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