I’m always on the lookout for ways to maintain anonymity when dealing with Crypto. Anonymity becomes harder as crypto becomes more mainstream and adopted by genpop.
There’s a few of these Bitcoiniacs ATMS located around Vancouver. I recently used one and I thought I’d give this quick review.
Table of Contents
I’ve noticed that there are multiple versions of these machines. I feel like the newer machines have an additional fee, which I didn’t see on this older type of machine used in this review.
The Review
For this review, I performed a cash withdrawal of $200 CAD, by selling the equivalent in BTC.
The number of Bitcoins that I sold was 0.00954
BTC Gas/Transaction Fee 0.00954 = $1.25 CAD. This is the network fee, and I don’t consider this amount as part of the Bitcoiniacs fee.
The Withdraw Process
Withdrawing the funds was relatively painless, but it is a two step process, with a time gap inbetween.
You need to provide a cell number for multi-factor authentication and that’s it. With an amount higher than $200 you might need to provide some ID.
After selecting $200 to withdraw, I am presented with a QR code to scan. I open Exodus wallet, select Send and scan the QR code, proceeding to send the required 0.00954 BTC to the Bitcoiniacs ATM BTC wallet.
A redemption voucher with a redemption number is then printed which you keep whilst the conversion from BTC > CAD is occurring.
Of course, you now have to wait for the transaction to be verified by the block chain so you can withdraw your $200. You’re at the mercy of the network now, but for me it took about 15 minutes. I went and got a drink whilst I waited for the SMS message stating that my CAD was ready to withdraw.
Upon return, I punch in the number found on the redemption voucher and it spits out my $200. Success.
So what did this all cost me? See below for some simple math, and scroll down to the bottom for the TLDR
Exchange Rates
On the 6th of December 2022 when I carried out this withdrawal, at 5pm the BTC to CAD exchange rates are shown below
Bitcoiniacs Exchange Rate
1 BTC = $20,964.36
Actual Exchange Rate
According to Yahoo at the time 1 BTC = $23,321.19
I notice below in the Yahoo screenshot it’s actually showing 1BTC = $23,182 CAD at 5pm on 6th December 2022. That might be because the first time I went to the ATM 15 minutes earlier the rate was slightly higher. At that point is when I sent the BTC and it locked in the exchange rate. 5pm is when I withdrew the money (or 4:57pm if you look at the receipt above).
Either way, it’s a ~0.5% difference which is hardly noticeable.
Bitcoiniacs ATM Fee on $200
So, what did it cost me?
I withdrew $200 CAD and was charged $222.48 CAD, which is around an 11.23% fee.
Final Thoughts
There’s some discrepancies with the information I have shown above and what I claim, I believe this is due to editing this post & opening the apps (Exodus) in different time zones, as well as the BTC to CAD transfers occurring over roughly a 15 minute period. It’s not perfect, but the 11.23% reported Bitcoiniacs fee will be very close to the actual number.
