My first Bitcoin investment

Bitcoin prices recovered from a multiyear slump in 2020. It breached its 2017 record near $20,000 in November. At the beginning of 2021, a Bitcoin price was about $28,983 which increased in value for the next 10 days when it passed the 40k line. Later on, it faced some fluctuations until the January month ended with a Bitcoin price of $34,318. When compared to the price at the beginning of the year, an increase of 18.4% was recorded. As you could see that the volatility of Bitcoin price is very high, it is very hard to project the closing price by the 2021 year end. You could get your bitcoins in various ways as a pure investor or a miner or an ATM operator. Regardless of what role you are playing, it is important to conduct your own research and preparation.

Investors

When you want to invest Bitcoin, you would need to choose a bitcoin wallet to buy your first bitcoins. You might be asked to register an account in order to start using bitcoins and bitcoin ATMs in particular. Actually, you don’t need to register with any service provider. You have the different options on how to keep cryptocurrencies, and especially Bitcoin — the most popular cryptocoin as of today. You could have your local wallets on your mobile phone, desktop or hardware wallet. The online wallets offered by Blockchain and Coinbase are good options.

After installing the wallet, you would decide where to buy/sell bitcoins. You could either do it online via exchange platforms like Coinbase (see above), Kraken and bitstamp. In this case, you need to pass KYC/AML requirements, e.g. provide your ID, share other details like mobile phone, address etc, and also usually you need to wire funds from your bank. So obviously exchange for cash is not an option with online exchanges. Bitcoin ATMs is another way to buy/sell BItcoin. This method does not require KYC/AML depending on your country. If you do not know the nearest location of Bitcoin ATMs, a popular platform, coinatmradar could help you .

Miners

Anyone can get a bitcoin miner. Those with lower electricity costs have a competitive advantage. ASIC Miner Value is a good website to demonstrate the efficiency and profitability (Link) of each type of mining machine. It gives you an idea how long the R.O.I (return on investment) to earn back the hardware cost. Since Bitcon prices rose, like a rocket start in the last 3 months, most of the popular mining machines are out of stock. You might contact the miner farm to see any offers.

ATM Operators

Coinatmradar (see above) provides very detailed information to be an ATM operator as follows-
❖ Check-list for running a bitcoin ATM
❖ Revenue and Costs of operating a bitcoin ATM
❖ Real-life bitcoin ATM metrics
❖ ROI Calculator
❖ How to Start a Bitcoin ATM Business

In average, the transaction fee is charged about 7% to 10% of the transaction amount to the Bitcoin ATM user in Hong Kong. Compared with on-line, it may be just about 1-2%. Selecting a location to install a Bitcoin machine is the no. 1 consideration. It is often that ATM transaction fees may be viewed too high to the user. However, Bitcoin ATM provides the easiest way to buy/sell the bitcoin.