Earlier this week, Cointelegraph carried out an exclusive interview with Tim Draper, a multi-billion dollar investor, who shared his insights on mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and the digital currency’s viability as a long-term investment.Over the past few years, Draper contributed significantly to the Bitcoin industry.His investments on leading Bitcoin exchanges and Blockchain startups such as Coinplug and Factom have established a robust infrastructure for Bitcoin users across the world.2016 was the year of Bitcoin.Both small and large-scale Bitcoin exchanges saw a drastic increase in trading volumes and demand from investors and traders.Bitcoin also outperformed every asset and reserve currency throughout the past 12 months.Yet, the Blockchain market struggled to showcase commercially successful applications or platforms for global usage.Draper believes Blockchain technology is still in its infancy and is yet to show its true potential outside the realm of finance.Companies like Factom are using enterprise-grade Blockchain to secure data and identities for sizable projects and institutions.

“Bitcoin continues to spread widely.Soon everyone will have a Bitcoin wallet.Growth there is on a larger base.Blockchain is still in its infancy so growth rates should be higher.Of course, they depend more on the actual application.” He emphasized that both Bitcoin exchange and Blockchain markets are at early stages.Draper expects the Bitcoin exchange market to grow at a much faster rate throughout this year, following the lead of key players like Coinbase.Particularly at the end of 2016, investors and traders in countries like China and the United States sought out for Bitcoin as a safe haven asset or a “hedge against the system” as leading Bitcoin exchange BTCC CEO Bobby Lee said previously.Some investors purchased Bitcoin to avoid temporary economic uncertainty and the devaluation of reserve currencies, while others included Bitcoin in their long-term investment portfolios, predicting a massive increase in value over time.Draper is an active participant of Bitcoin auctions and has won several of them in the past.

Bitcoin auctions are an effective way to purchase large amounts of Bitcoin that are relatively difficult to secure through regulated Bitcoin exchanges.He also has invested in many Bitcoin startups, as Draper believes Bitcoin startups will increase in value in relation to the digital currency.There are many investors that prefer to fund Bitcoin startups as a safer long-term option, while there are large investment firms attempting to purchase large amounts of Bitcoin directly from mining firms like BitFury, as mentioned by BitFury vice chairman George Kikvadze.In the end, Draper believes either investment will work out well in the long run.Some investors like to focus on funding tech projects and startups, while others are currency traders in nature.“I have done both.Some people are currency traders and some are tech investors.Both should work out in the long run for Bitcoin,” explained Draper.For currency traders that hold Bitcoin as a direct investment, they will benefit from the short-term increase in Bitcoin value.

Startups need capital and time to grow and thus will require patience from their investors.joel heyman bitcoinSome currency traders are also holding Bitcoin as digital gold and sees it as a safe haven asset rather than a settlement system.mats henricson bitcoinThe use case of Bitcoin ultimately depends on the users, it can be used as digital gold or a settlement system.bitcoin het thoiAs Draper explains, “The current uses of Bitcoin are just the tip of the iceberg.” Three years ago, Draper predicted the Bitcoin price to reach $10,000 by now.bitcoin john wickHe remains optimistic regarding the increasing Bitcoin value and expects it to reach $10,000 in a year: “I predicted a $10000 price on Bitcoin in three years about three years ago.flashback bitcoin kapiton

Might take another year.”bitcoin in gbpYou may be also interested in the instructions how to sell bitcoins using ATM.In order to buy bitcoins using a bitcoin ATM you need to find the closest to you location and understand what kind of machine it is.Asking yourself where is closest bitcoin ATM near me?To find all locations – visit our bitcoin machines map.At the moment there are about 30 different types of bitcoin ATMs with about 20 manufacturers having their units actually installed somewhere.It may be difficult for an average user to understand how to buy bitcoins by using a bitcoin ATM and what are the differences among various ATMs.In this article we describe a bitcoin purchase process for 6 different mostly installed bitcoin ATMs in the world (they cover about 90% of the market altogether) and two more types, which were popular before and now are rarely used (Skyhook and Robocoin): There is a general buy process at all bitcoin ATMs: This process may vary from ATM to ATM, and this is what we describe for every of the mentioned above bitcoin ATM types.

It is important to understand that even when machine’s software/hardware support compliance procedures, they are not necessarily activated, as it depends on the operator choice of every particular machine.That is why the same type of machine might have different verifications and limits set up.San-Diego based company Genesis Coin produces three types of ATMs: Genesis1 (two-way), Satoshi1 (one-way) and Satoshi2 (two-way).The process of purchasing bitcoins may have a verification procedure, in this case: The process is demonstrated on the following video: The same machine used by another person: And here is an example of how a similar machine can be used without verifications (if operator chooses to do so): Here is a short video: You can read review of a user who purchased bitcoins from a Genesis1 machine at Fantastico Comic Store in Mexico City.Satoshi1 is a one-way ATM model from Genesis Coin producer.So you can only buy bitcoins from this machine for cash.

Satoshi2 is a very similar looking unit, but it has dispenser slot and allows both buy and sell bitcoin transactions.However, buying bitcoins is identical at both of them.The process flow is identical as the one for Genesis1, we just looked at.But here is an example of how bitcoins can be purchased at this machine: The process is demonstrated here: You can also read an independent review a of user using Satoshi1 bitcoin ATM to purchase bitcoins at Marina Smoke Shop in Huntington Beach, CA.This is the second mostly installed Bitcoin machine in the world after Genesis Coin models (as of February 2017).Lamassu Bitcoin ATMs are installed in many countries worldwide.The process of purchasing bitcoins is very simple: Important!There is no paper wallet printer at this machine, so you need to have a Bitcoin wallet / address before using it (either on your phone, or printed on paper).The machine doesn’t have a camera and normally there are no verification procedures in place.

However, as it operates based on open source code software, some operators adjusted the flow and introduced verifications, e.g.phone number check by SMS (you need to find out what is the process at your location).The process takes 15 seconds and is demonstrated in the following video: Read a review of a user experience of buying bitcoins at one of Lamassu bitcoin ATMs.General Bytes ATM may be set up to provide services to: Depending on how the operator sets up the machine the process is different.Also this Bitcoin ATM does not have a receipt printer, but additionally to the option of using existing wallet the user can define email, where the encrypted private keys of a newly generated address will be sent with further instructions how to use it.The process of buying bitcoins using your email is the following: The process is demonstrated in the following video: Here is a short video of purchasing bitcoins with this ATM using standard way (existing wallet): This is a new model introduced by General Bytes in the beginning of 2015.

The main difference is that this machine supports two-way operations: buying and selling of bitcoins for cash.More details about this model can be found here.The process of buying bitcoins at this machine is quite similar to the one at BATMTwo, but the UI is different.Here are the steps: Depending on the operator and thresholds set, you can be asked to confirm mobile number by SMS, give finger print or scan your ID.The following video demonstrates the basic purchase bitcoins process at this machine: BitAccess machine is quite spread on the market according to the number of installations.It is well represented in Canada, US and European countries.The process of buying bitcoins using this ATM is the following: The process is demonstrated on this video: This was the most compact and cheap bitcoin ATM on the market.However, presumably due to low price, the company could not survive long term and abandoned market in beginning of 2015 by practically eliminating any support and delaying deliveries.

As a result number of these machines on the market reduced dramatically.There are still some in the wild, but not many.Due to hardware and software issues, these machines are difficult to operate, and they are removed from locations.The process of buying bitcoins via this machine is pretty similar to the one above for Lamassu: As there is no printer in this machine, you need to have a bitcoin address beforehand.The process of buying bitcoins using Skyhook bitcoin ATM is illustrated in this video: UPD: The company producing these bitcoin machines has closed and now there are several machines left installed at various locations, but due to lack of software support they were required to switch to another software.Many operators have used software from General Bytes named Robocoin-kit, which means that although the hardware and how machine looks stays the same, the process of purchasing bitcoins has changed totally and now is identical to the one of a two-way General Bytes model.

This is how the old process of buying bitcoins at Robocoin kiosk looked before: This was a controversy bitcoin machine in the Bitcoin community as it had quite advanced verification procedures, about which users usually complained on different forums.Machine supported verification procedures including the palm vein scan, but not necessarily it was activated by operators.The process of buying bitcoins at this ATM was split into two main steps: very first visit (account registration process is more complicated) and all the rest purchases (account is already created, the process is simpler and faster).If you had not used the machine before, during the first visit you needed to create account with Robocoin.Since November 2014 Robocoin made a mandatory update of all operators’ kiosks.After this, if you used a Robocoin software – you needed to use a Robocoin wallet (aka version 2.0).For creating one the following steps were needed to be completed: After this the kiosk confirmed provided data and your account was created.