Do you all have at least one operable atm machine at the moment?
We do have a traditional fiat ATM at our storefront location. We actually use Square readers too to accept credit card payments - as do two of our neighboring businesses, a small diner/pub and a used video game outlet. For smaller independently owned businesses where most transactions are likely paid with cash anyways, square or similar readers are the way to go - you get to avoid the high fees with monthly rental or purchasing of conventional card reader hardware, on top of being charged per-transaction fees. Have you ever seen a small business with a sign that said something like "credit card minimum purchase must be $5, or $10"? This is because of the fees otherwise the companies would be losing money on sales and eventually go out of business - and VISA/MasterCard merchant agreements prevent retailers from charging any kind of extra fee to customers paying by card instead of cash, even Paypal was the same way with eBay sellers back when users could pay for items won from auctions with personal checks or money orders. It might be surprising how many small businesses have opted to begin using these independent universal card readers for payments - and these would be the merchants already equipped to easily start taking crypto-payments. With Bitcoin ATMs nearby they could easily withdraw funds as cash each day or however often if they are worried about market fluctuations. We even considered offering a hedging service for an additional fee to protect merchants against price fluctuations like some online marketplaces have done before with Bitcoin - and we could implement this service if there was demand for it. Meanwhile to encourage merchants using our CryptoCoin card themselves, the 2.5% processing fee they are charged for accepting store payments is discounted from the Bitcoin ATM's 4.5% withdrawal fee when a merchant withdraws funds they received as CryptoCoin Card payments - this serves as an additional incentive for physical retailers to begin accept crypto through our platform.
We have already started the process of obtaining the proper licensure in the three nearest states to operate Bitcoin ATMs - Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio - currently West Virginia doesn't have any machines at all and Morgantown being a busy college town could be a prime location. We planned on using our own money to setup a machine there or in our own store location in Uniontown, PA (however it's a rural area not likely to generate as much traffic - yet). Indeed having a machine early would give us a jump on starting the process of gaining familiarity with the programming (adding support for additional currencies and integrating the CCO debit card) and white-label design (cover art & branding) but with the right team of developers hired this could all be done quickly and easily, and ready for mass production.
The market for Bitcoin ATMs has already been tested - they have been in existence for about 4 years and independent data shows that most locations are successful enough to maintain profit for small companies (most operators only have 1-3 machines) so at any larger scale things would be all the more successful because so many initial as well as ongoing costs can be shared between machines (legal fees, liquidity, customer service, etc.). Our team's background makes us familiar with business, finance, and crypto - we are educated and have 10+ years experience in owning & operating several local businesses successfully and most importantly we already own a property that would be an ideal location for the mass distribution of Bitcoin ATMs, development of the debit card platform, and a customer service center.
The original plan earlier this year for this idea was to use a crowdfund on a platform such as Kickstarter directed towards the Bitcoin community but with the high initial cost of purchasing even just 100 machines it would have been outside the scope of funding that most crowdfunds have ever been able to generate. With the recent popularity of ICOs these past several months showing the possibility of generating enough funding for this big of a project we decided to go that route and design a token relating to Bitcoin ATMs that has viability and is desirable to investors.
This allows us to be recognized publicly as a legitimate company, and so people know we were the first, while still allowing us the flexibility to take in more community feedback, answer questions, and make updates & clarifications as needed until everyone can see that this really is a goal worth pursuing and investing in. And yes it gives us time to promote the project as well. Thank you all for your input so far!