Top up Bitcoin at your local railway station!
Today I am in Zug, the so-called Crypto Valley, to meet some Steemians and Crypto-Enthusiasts. Since I was a little early, I had time to have a closer look at the ticket machines of the SBB (the Swiss railway company). What I discovered was surprising, and since I haven't had much time for Steemit the last days, I thought this is worth a short blog post.
Image by @sblue
Why would I inspect a ticket machine in the first place?
It started today morning, when I noticed, that the ticket machines have a Bitcoin icon on their welcome screen, which triggered my curiosity. So I thought it would be worth having a look at the "Other Tickets / Offers" option of the ticket machine. There you'll find a whole lot of stuff like regional offers, season tickets, bicycle tickets, but also a button that says "Prepaid". That sounded promising, and I went ahead. Indeed, I landed at a screen where you can easily purchase Bitcoin, by tapping on the "Top up Bitcoin" button. After tapping this button, you can scan the QR-Code of your wallet and purchase Bitcoin for an amount of 20.- to 500.- Swiss Francs (Current CHF/USD exchange rate is: 1.03$/CHF).
Image by @sblue
After a bit of research, I found out, that SBB offers this service for quite some time. SBB is offering this service since November 11. 2016. The service launched in cooperation with SweePay and SBB is providing their ticket machines as a distribution channel. With over 1'000 ticket machines, Switzerland has a dense network of terminals where you can buy bitcoin.
I found this to be very interesting and like the fact that adoption is approaching. Although this service might not be used that much, I like that the Swiss railway company SBB doesn't fear new technology and innovation but instead participates in pushing the boundaries.
If you want to learn more, you can find additional information on the official SBB Website:
What do you think about this? Do you know similar possibilities to buy Bitcoin?
And if you're a Swiss (or living in Switzerland) Crypto Enthusiast, did you know about this Service SBB offers?
As always, I appreciate your Feedback and Questions in the comment section below!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Check out my other posts as well:
- Steemit.com/@sblue - WTF is Money? And why Bitcoin is more than just a currency.
- Steemit.com/@sblue - What is Bitcoin? - When Money becomes a content type!
- Steemit.com/@sblue - Proof of Work - Sudoku on a planetary scale!
- Steemit.com/@sblue - The Economics of Bitcoin Mining
- Steemit.com/@sblue - Attacking the Bitcoin Network
Hey @sblue, it was nice seeing you yesterday.
it truely is really cool that the SBB offer this service (I know about it but have never used it) but i never checked what the exchange rate is and what they charge as comission... did you see that anywhere?
I know that you can also buy BTC in every Austrian post office (not sure about the swiss though)
Hey @felander! It was nice seeing you too! Also, it was cool to see the new location for the first time. It's awesome, I love the new office/space! 😃I haven't found information on the exchange rate. I guess the only way to figure out is to buy some Bitcoin... 😅I wouldn't expect attractive exchange rates but like the fact that this possibility exists, since it helps the adoption and to build trust for Bitcoin. SBB has a very good reputation and offering Bitcoin from their ticket machines not only provides a dense network of "BTC-ATMs" but also improves Bitcoin's reputation.
This is awesome. We need more and more public acceptance for cryptos. And time will solve this.
Thanks for your reply. I totally agree! I'm excited to see how things will develop over time. To me it seems similar to how the internet evolved. In the beginning, we could barely send text-based emails (no attachments or images) and look how far we've come.
Cool machines...
Can you also pay cash or use your credit card to buy BitCoin via it ?
Or do you have to have a SBB bank account to get Bitcoin with it, where the Swiss Franken are withdrawn from ?
Please follow me @overunitydotcom and lets upvote our own posts... I currently have about 5 cents upvote power and I am looking for other people who also have this upvote power and that we can each upvote our own posts. Many thanks.
Regards, Stefan.
Hey @overunitydotcom! Thanks for your reply. In fact, SBB is not a bank. It's the Swiss Railway company. The machines in the pictures aren't ATMs, they are ticket machines. So yes, you can get BTC for Cash without having a bank account since SBB isn't a bank and doesn't offer bank accounts 😉Swiss Francs is are withdrawn from whichever ATM you want.