Custody and cash · 40 / 127 · 2 min
Bitcoin ATMs
The machine is a company, a camera, and a spread. The shop is not the chain.
The rate is theirs. The address is whoever it pays.
A worked case
A stranger walks someone to a machine and reads out an address. The cash goes in. The coins go to the stranger. The machine worked. The spread was the operator's. The address was the scam.
The price
The rate on the machine is not the rate on a chart. The gap is how the operator is paid. A daily limit is their rule.
The address
You type or scan an address. A wrong address is final. A stranger who walked you to the machine and named the address is the one who gets paid.
Cash, a camera, their rate
A bitcoin ATM takes cash or sells it and talks to a service that broadcasts a transaction. The operator sets the rate. The gap against a quoted market is the business. Limits and identity checks are the operator's rules, not the chain's.
The address on the screen is the whole payment. A person who brought you to the machine and supplied the address is the recipient. The machine will not know that you were hurried.
Read it yourself
These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.
Apply the check
Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.
The operator, via the spread. The address, via the coins.
The operator, for limits and the rate.
The address that was paid. There is no reversal in the machine.
Check yourself
Write it in your own words. The course's answer opens after that. Nothing is sent.
After this you can read the spread, and check the address was yours.