BI tends to be a bit worthless, so here's the source forum post if you want to skip straight to that. Note the author's edits where he outlines why he thinks this is actually an optimal state of affairs.
There still remains no easy way to get bitcoins. It's ridiculous. Currently, the best approach for the average person in the US is to get an account at an exchange, link a bank account, which takes days, then buy and wait days again to get some. The barrier to entry is far to high. sounds_sound, have you been by that bitcoin ATM since? I heard it always has a line. I'd love to know if that's true. I know several people that have expressed interest in getting bitcoin over the last year or so, but none have. If bitcoin is to be useful, this has to change. It is not an optimal state of affairs.
True. I've been 'tipped' bitcoin percentage points on reddit a handful of times, but I fear they've long since joined the .5 million "lost" because at the time I had no idea how/no wherewithal to deal with them. I was reading earlier that cashing out bitcoins is also now quite difficult if you have a significant amount, because of anti-laundering limits placed on transactions revolving around dumping bitcoins. Takes days if not weeks of steady transacting to get rid of large numbers legally (i.e. through coinexchange).
I've seen estimates that it's much higher. I've read that there are over 30k addresses that have exactly 50BTC and no transactions, created more than two years ago. The thought is that many of these are mining rewards at lost addresses. That's possibly 1.5M there. I personally sent 4 BTC into the ether, back when they were around $2.True. I've been 'tipped' bitcoin percentage points on reddit a handful of times, but I fear they've long since joined the .5 million "lost" because at the time I had no idea how/no wherewithal to deal with them.
I just walked past it today to see. No line. No nothing. If one didn't know any better, they'd think it was a normal atm, or maybe one of those video renting kiosk things.
Pretty certain they accept bitcoin at the counter. The coffee shop is a chain here though and I don't think the others in the city accept it. Not sure why this one is special.