Yesterday evening, all the bitcoin atm's disabled cash withdrawal.

submitted by [deleted] from self.bitcoin

Atleast the two that I was using: bitaccess and preferred coin. With bitaccess, I know it is at every location now disabled across the U.S.

I really need to find a way to obtain cash as this is my only way to survive, so I will start looking for other merchants in the area, but this seems too oddly coordinated to be a coincidence.

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[–]jagworms 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

Told ya. Digital currency has a fatal flaw in that it's inside the internet. They can gatekeep your access, they can turn off the power. They can do lots of things that make it useless and inaccessible.

[–]SoCo 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (8 children)

I disagree with this one. They can't really gatekeep or block access. There is always a way. We already have satellite nodes and most equipment can run on renewable power. VPNs and Tor nodes are pretty easy to side step anything. Even government Telecom attacks, that we've been FUD'd up with lately, would only denial of service a a couple days in reality, being short-lived, not come away with stolen funds, and make them look bad.

As we saw with the corporate coup of Bitcoin that broke its fees with the small block change, we've learned the main flaw and decentralization weakness was openly abused to force the unwanted block chain: Market Enablers

Market Enablers are almost all private corporations. They facilitate making Bitcoin useful. They are the exchanges, they run the ATMs, they run the online wallets, and they do the point of sale processing. These market members colluded together to push extort the Bitcoin community into accepting fee breaking and long term Bitcoin value nerfing changes, of a small block cap, that the community didn't want.

Hopefully decentralized exchanges and other services can shore up the huge centralization power of colluding market members and campaigns of free hats.

[–]jagworms 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

I don't know wtf you just said, but it does not convince me that BTC isn't pie in the sky. Sounds like a good idea until you realize that it's just as easy to turn off as your state issued social credit digital ID.

[–]SoCo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

It is expressly and intentionally hard to turn off, I'm suggesting impossible. That's the beauty of decentralization. Yet, I've pointed out its centralized weakness that has been used to strangle Bitcoin before, the market enablers.

[–]raven9 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

So what happens if they shut down the exchanges?

[–]jingles 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

bitcoin is a scam... you will all get burned in the end.

[–]SoCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You use an exchange they can't take down.

Definition: A decentralized exchange (or DEX) is a peer-to-peer marketplace where transactions occur directly between crypto traders.

Exchanges are centralized bottlenecks in the crytpocurrency's decentralized ecosystem. An exchange or DEX can be ran on an impossible to take down host; such as behind a domain hosts that resists censorship, behind a Tor hidden service, or using one of many peer-to-peer solutions, even running on top of a blockchain with automated contract code. A DEX can provide a whole exchange or just user to user bartering of crypto/fiat-cash, such as a zero restrictions version of LocalBitcoins.com. Before the exchanges existed, that is what crypto users did. They used localbitcoins.com and forums to buy and sell crypto between each other directly, using Ebay style reputation systems. It worked very well and I used it for years, mailing $100 bills to some unknown guy who would send coins to my address, without an issue. Then the restrictions, data collection, and account requirements increased as that site grew and was leaned on by bankers and their regulators.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There is always a way. We already have satellite nodes

One satellite does not a block chain make. Bartering is the way. Valuables the currency are.

[–]SoCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Radios make up for the rest. Between HAM, Shortwave, and other frequencies, crypto can easily be ran without Internet. Bartering is useful sometimes, but the whole point of a currency is to make battering easier (and with crypto, safer). In a society collapse, battering would be the most dangerous act one would do.

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

In a society collapse, battering would be the most dangerous act one would do.

I think you underestimate my dedication to extreme sports.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Adding Genesis Coin to the list of operators who disabled cash withdrawal. On a funny note, they are all willing to take your cash still.

The coordination and motivation required to make this happen across multiple independent operators - all at the same time - is staggering.

edit: preferred coin's operator is actually chainbytes

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

At least two separate ATM companies are doing cash withdraws here in in little old rural southern Illinois. That's growth in the last 6 months (since the world economic crash) as there was only one company that cashed out, until then.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I don't really believe you, sorry. A lot of them say available but when you go to send or withdraw it fails.

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We are in a global recession. Everyone is broke. I only use them in the last year to withdraw cash to dip into my saving, because the economy is shitty and I'm struggling like everyone else. I've withdrew cash within the last month from one.

[–]SoCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I use them. rocket cash and I forget the name of the other one.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

RockitCoin is down for me too, albeit the weirdest issue of them all. Two different machines with dispensor errors. Their operator is Genesis.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

This is worrisome, and reeks of an upcoming run on banks and collapse of the entire financial system.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Extremely worrisome. The four major bitcoin atm operators all halted withdrawals on the same day.

[–]x0x7 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Where are you roughly?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Texas

[–]package 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This is why money is one of the things that simply requires some amount of regulation; otherwise it can far too easily be stolen, devalued, or otherwise mishandled with absolutely no legal recourse.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I don't see why regulations would entail suspending all cash withdrawals arbitrarily and without notice.

[–]package 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

My point is the opposite; regulations would generally prevent situations like this without a clear reason