The Open-Source Crypto ATM, a Bitcoin ATM that someone with minimal electro-mechanical skill can build at home with parts from Amazon and hardware from Lowes. OSCA does not require you to disclose any personal information to use this ATM. The user inserts cash and the machine returns a cold wallet loaded with the desired amount of crypto-currency.
This project is still in beta and is in active development.
Detailed step-by-step instructions and a video tutorial are coming soon. However you can find all of the software and plans in this repo.
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Accept Bitcoin - Want to accept Bitcoin at your business? Use OSCA to provide your customers a easy way to purchase Bitcoin
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Passive Income - Use the commission feature to earn a commission on each transaction.
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Fungibility - Make crypto more fungibile by allowing anyone to anonymously convert hard fiat currency into cryptocurrency.
OSCA is very simple to use. Simply insert the amount of cash you would like converted to Bitcoin then press the blue flashing button.
A paper wallet will be printed that is loaded with the desired amount of Bitcoin. Scan the status QR code to see your transaction on blockchain. Scan the withdraw QR code on the right to sweep the paper wallet.
Bitcoin and crypto in general have the power to revolutionise finance. However anonymously converting fiat currency into crypto is becoming harder and harder. All of the major crypto exchanges require disclosure of personal identifiable information. Even the Bitcoin ATMs at your local gas station require a cell phone number and an email address. Crypto-currencies are so much of a threat to the legacy banking system that the UK has banned Bitcoin ATMs outright. This concerns me because I believe if we remain on this course open-source technology like blockchain will become heavily regulated and corporatized.
The Open-Source Crypto ATM aims to remedy these issues by making it safe, easy and anonymous for anyone to convert hard fiat currency into digital cryptocurrency. The machine has been deliberately designed so someone with minimal electro-mechanical skill can build this ATM at home with a few off the shelf electronics and trip to the local hardware store.
By making this project open-source I hope others will contribute to this project and extend the software to work with other popular crypto-currencies. Over the long-term I hope that anonymous crypto ATMs will make crypto more accessible and fungible.
YOU CAN’T. I’ll say that again, you can’t trust this machine if you see it in the wild. A malicious actor could simply not load the paper wallet or save a copy of each private key it generates. So why build it then? My vision is that in the short to medium-term these kind of machines will be operated by independent businesses (gas stations, gun stores, smoke shops, etc) and the customers will trust the operator, not the machine per se. A user can easily test if the wallet is being loaded or not with a $5 transaction. Always remember to withdraw the value of the paper wallet to a secure wallet as soon as possible.
Paper wallets are controversial because they are considered outdated and unsecure, however I believe this is a perfect use case. While admittedly they have their drawbacks, paper wallets allow for the most anonymous method of exchanging cash for cryptocurrency. Any digital method could potentially expose the identity of the recipient. Furthermore any digital method of exchange would require the user to have a smartphone to use this machine, which not everybody has. I see no reason why cryptocurrencies must exist exclusively in the digital domain.
Consider the Venn diagram of the parameters of this project. A) It must be easy to build B) Require minimal skill to build C) Must be cheap and extremely robust. While metal has obvious advantages (not least of which aesthetic), it requires skill to work with and expensive tools. Concrete is very cheap, it’s easy to work with and is exceptionally strong. Therefore concrete is the obvious choice.
For better or for worse Bitcoin is the poster-child cryptocurrency. Its over a decade old, I bet your grandparents have heard about it at this point. Therefore I feel like that was the best cryptocurrency to start with.