The Bitcoin ATM that doubles as an evangelist

Co-founders of Satoshi Citadel Industries (l-r): John Bailon, Nick Galan, Jardine Gerodias, Miguel Cuneta

Bitmarket.ph, a Bitcoin payment platform based in the Philippines, recently introduced the first Bitcoin ATM in the country.

The commercial ATM, which retails for US$999, comes courtesy of manufacturer Project Skyhook. It allows for one-way transactions: users can purchase Bitcoins through it by putting Philippine pesos into the bill acceptor. The ATM then transfers the corresponding amount of Bitcoin to the user’s address, which is linked when he or she scans a QR code on a smartphone to Skyhook’s camera.

The ATM charges users a three percent fee on top of the Bitcoin sell price listed on CoinXchange.ph. Bitmarket’s ultimate goal, however, is not to make money from its use, but to increase Bitcoin awareness.

“Our goal is adoption and education,” says Sabina Lopez-Vergara, the director of marketing and public relations for Bitmarket. “With Bitmarket.ph, we are trying to create the market for users to spend their Bitcoin. But how do they get Bitcoin? The ATM eliminates the hassle of having to deal with an exchange and trekking to the bank to make a deposit. With this ATM, anyone with a Bitcoin wallet can buy Bitcoin. It’s as simple as just going up to a vending machine and purchasing food.”

When more Filipinos have Bitcoin, Bitmarket.ph and the umbrella company that owns it – Satoshi Citadel Industries – benefits. Filipinos can purchase products and services through one of Bitmarket’s almost 100 merchants, send remittances through Rebit.ph, or tip fellow users through selfie-posting site Bitstars.

Lopez-Vergara explains, “When more people have Bitcoin, they will be looking for ways to spend it. This helps us a great deal in closing the circle of our marketplace.”

See: How a startup is driving Bitcoin adoption with selfies in the Philippines

A traveling ATM

The ATM currently sits in the Bitmarket office in Makati City, and the Bitmarket team admits that it has been sparsely used since it was shipped from Portland, Oregon. They estimate that about a hundred users have bought Bitcoin through the ATM over the past few weeks.

But that’s just fine for the Bitmarket team. The ATM is a tabletop model – in other words, if Bitcoin enthusiasts are not coming to the ATM, they can bring the ATM to the Bitcoin enthusiasts. “The novelty of it being small and light is that it is mobile,” Lopez-Vergara says.

One of the first places the Bitmarket team brought the ATM to was the Bitcoin Ph meetup at Dencio’s Bar and Grill in Metrowalk, but it experienced technical difficulties.

Exhibiting the ATM to the local Bitcoin community aligns with SCI’s goal to be viewed as the most forward-thinking of local Bitcoin-related companies. “We want to establish ourselves as the Bitcoin authority in the country,” Lopez-Vergara says. “As a purely local venture, we are hoping to be considered thought leaders in the Bitcoin space.”

Mobile ATMs … a good idea?