So last year we had our first attempt at buying bitcoin in Dublin via GSM Solution’s Bitcoin ATM, which wasn’t working at the time we checked it in August, and considering that we’ve recently reviewed the southside bitcoin atm, we thought we’d go back in and try it out a second time (and third). Here’s our experience!
We were able to get bitcoins on both of our visits, but we had to take two different approaches. On the first of our recent visits to GSM Solutions, I popped in and went up to the bitcoin ATM. I tried to stick money into it, only to be told that someone had recently cleared it out, and that there was a top up going onto the machine, but waiting for network confirmations. In this case, I had twenty minutes to spare, so I hung around, looking at their collection of vintage Nintendo consoles, and mobile phones from back in the day. I also checked blocktrail, but at that exact time, the network was stuck on what was going to be about a 90 minute block.
So as I did need to catch a luas, I instead opted to use their coinkite terminal to buy bitcoins. One of the things I had said about the previous review of using this machine was that VAT used to be deducted. However, this time around, there was a zero vat rate so I got the full bitcoin I expected, with a couple of percent. In this case, they print off a voucher like phone credit, and you enter a wallet address into their website which sends you the coins. We also picked up one of the gold plated bitcoin coins for the craic while we were there.
Now I’ve been unfortunate (or the atm is just really busy) on both times I went there, and to properly review it, I went a third time, about a week later to try again. This time I had success. The process is fairly straightforward. Hold up your wallet QR code, in my case a Circle wallet on my phone. Confirm your address and give it money. We fed in a tenner, and then bought the coins which very quickly were sent to our phone.
So like the other bitcoin atm in Dublin, the process of getting bitcoins once you are prepared, and the atm has coins in it only takes two or three minutes. One thing I did notice on the receipt is that it said the amount was in dollars, but the exchange rate used is in Euro.
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