Please read this before asking questions
FAQ
Q: Where can I demo the ATM/Payment Kiosk?
A:
You can visit one in person <maplink>
You can call a local distributor or reseller to arrange a demo in person <distributor list>
Or if you just want to see the software in action, go to our website and click the "demo" button, try to keep in mind that version is live.
Q: Why do I see a bunch of gift cards? What if I don't want to dispense gift cards?
A: We are an authorized reseller for gyft. This is a value add and allows your machine to have more appeal than a straight crypto-currency ATM. Nevertheless, gift cards are just a category of products, you can enable any product by group or by item, from the admin console <admin demo link>
Q: I tried to buy a $10,000 Amazon Card. Bitcoin reload, bitUSD reload etc. It wouldn't let me. What's up with that?
A: There are few reasons. The first is AML/KYC, by default we limit your max purchase on crypto reloads to $500 daily. There is no limit on gift cards. However we don't keep unlimited amounts of money on tap with Gyft. So what you see as the max amount is either the limit of funds we have there, or the limit that Gyft applied for whatever reason.
Q: Are you going to place similar limits on my own inventory items?
A: No, what you do with your inventory is your business, remember that settlement occurs in bitUSD only.
Q: What did that last guy mean by inventory? Do I have to buy cards from you and then be stuck trying to resell them?
A: No, not at all. There are public and private inventories available. The public inventory includes the gift cards from Gyft, we make these available to you for resale. You are not required to purchase them ahead of time. In addition to that, you may add items of your own choosing and elect to make them either public or private. If they are private they will only be visible on machines you own. If they are public everyone will have access to sell them, when they do you will receive bitUSD
Q: Why bitUSD?
A: A reliable market pegged crypto currency, with fungibility and an interest yield. Why would we use anything else?
Q: So do you have plans to support. NXT, DOGE, MYFavorite Alt?
A: If there is enough demand, we may support some other alt coins, but they are not on the table right now. The cost for us to add a custom altcoin to the back end is currently $3,000 bitUSD. This barely covers our development & maintenance costs and the coin must support multisig wallets to even be considered. The only exception to this rule is people who are purchasing or leasing more than 10 units. Larger purchases have their own isolated backend and can be customized quite a bit on request.
Q: Is there any other way to support an altcoin?
A: Yes, if you want to provide a wrapper that is compliant with our API, then you can just add it like any other inventory item.
Q: What's the difference if I do it as inventory vs paying you for integration?
A: If it's integrated it will be useful as a payment mechanism, i.e. you and possibly others will be able to accept it as a method of payment and not just as something you dispense. Also if it's integrated we guarantee full settlement. Inventory settlement is up to you <link to api docs>
Q: Is this product opensource?
A: The back end is source available, but to master distributors only.
Purchasers and Leaseholders can obtain access to the full source code by signing an NDA.
The front end is opensource, you can in fact make your own front end to replace it if you like. The source is available by right clicking on the demo page and doing a "view source". Or you can screen scrape it. It is very likely we'll put it up on github soon, the only thing holding that up right now is time and other projects we have going on. There are API docs available <api doc link> feel free to build your own, but keep in mind you need to have an account with us before the back-end will credit you with sales.
Q: What languages did you use to write this?
A: Backend is golang, front end is HTML5, CSS & AngularJS. Database is postgres and the blockchain.
Q: How does the bill acceptor/recycler work? Couldn't someone just hack the webpage and make it think payment had been tendered, thereby robbing the owners?
A: Unlikely, the part you actually see and interact with is just a view that represents a stream of data coming from the back end. Each bill acceptor has a unique signing key embedded in it and it communicates directly to the backend to update state. The backend pushes these state messages to the app which then displays whatever the backend tells it to. However the backend keeps control of the situation at all times.
Q: Can't someone just compromise the backend server and get at the funds?
A: Funds are not kept on the back end server. Keys are not kept on the back end server. The back end works by firing a callback to an activity server. The activity server is on a private network, only talks to the backend and the wallets. Furthermore, no more than 1% of funds are kept in any crypto wallet. Anything beyond that requires manual intervention. When you add an inventory item to your own machines using our API, what you are essentially doing is creating your own activity server.
Q: What happens if my personal inventory/activity server goes offline?
A: If your activity server goes offline the product(s) assigned to it will disappear until such time as it regains uptime integrity. If this happens in the middle of a transaction, you will be responsible for fulfillment and this can result in a "delayed fulfillment" message being presented to the user. Taking the server offline is not the preferred way to disable inventory, but it does work.
Q: What is "delayed fulfillment"
A: This means that the transaction exceeded the hotwallet balance and will need to be manually reviewed. Or if it's a user issued item, it means that the user's activity or inventory server went offline or encountered some other issue. Basically the user will now have your contact details presented to them in order to help them complete the transaction. Or ours if it's one of our products.
Q: How can I limit the products? How can I add products?
A: There are two ways. The first is through the admin panel under add/remove products.
The other way is via our API.
Q: I want to place this in a coffee shop / bar / retail establishment and I would like to offer them the ability to sell their own giftcards as a deal sweetener. What's the best way to do this?
A: There are 2 ways to do this, the way you do it is up to you. If it's a pre-provisioned product that the store will be fulfilling, then the easiest way is to upload an inventory CSV file to the admin panel. Codes will be selected from inventory and emailed to the customer upon order completion. When you run out of inventory, the product will no longer be available to customers. The other way is to add an activity server that responds to our RESTful API and then you can manage inventory however you want.
Q: I sold a public product that was issued by another user, it was sold for cash deposit. How do I settle up with the user?
A: You should have bitUSD sitting in your reserve account at all times to manage this type of thing. There is no minimum or maximum and reserves pay interest. We use bitUSD for settlement and settlement is automatic once the sale confirms. If your balance is insufficient to cover it, then the product should not have sold. It is possible if you have enough machines in operation that your reserve can drop below the required threshold to complete the sale settlement procedure. When this happens we offer cash deposit options that allow you to go to a local bank or even a gas station in some areas and deposit cash to increase your reserves. You must do this, your machine will not continue to operate until this is done. If you have more than 10 machines in operation or you find you are frequently in this position, you should consider a business line of credit to increase your reserves.
If the reverse happened, meaning someone sold your public product, then we guarantee settlement, you as an owner or operator bear 0 risk.
Q: I have way too much bitUSD in my reserve account, what can I do with it?
A: Draw down your balance to your own wallet then trade it at your favorite exchange. Keep in mind that bitUSD pays interest and is rapidly gaining acceptance.
Q: What do these cost?
A: We don't resell individual units in areas where we have distributorships already. Our MSRP is $1200 bitUSD for 1-way models and we expect the 2-way models to come in around $1500 bitUSD. Your local distributor can get you better pricing information.
Q: Can I buy a 1-way model and upgrade to a 2-way model later?
A: Yes, see your distributor for more details on the specifics for your locale.
Q: I already have a Skyhook, why do I want to buy a Simplicity?
A: We designed these to be footprint and hardware compatible with Skyhooks. You can upgrade your Skyhook software directly to the Simplicity software stack and enjoy all the benefits (except 2-way functionality) right away. Contact a local reseller for more details. If there isn't one in your area email info@gemspace.net
Q: I already have a Skyhook, the uptime is terrible! But I only want a crypto ATM so why would I want to buy a Simplicity?
A: We've actually fixed most of the problems that Skyhooks usually have most of that was software. You should at least consider upgrading because of that alone. With our software there is no bag holder risk. No matter the price of the currency, you aren't holding them so you have no risk from price changes. You set the spread to whatever you want and make your profit without the foreign exchange risk you would otherwise be facing.
Q: I already have a Skyhook, my Country, State, City, Overlords said they're illegal here now.
A: There has been a real effort by banks and other financial institutions to try and raise the barriers to entry on all things crypto lately. We cannot advise you on the law. In most cases though, there are settings you can set that will make you compliant again. Your local distributor can walk you through this process. If more is needed it will be up to you unfortunately.
Q: How can I become a distributor/reseller?
A: Each country has a master distributor, or will soon. Their job is to assign distributor/reseller licenses and they make a profit for doing so. The cost to become a master distributor varies from country to country, but on average you can expect that it will be around $250,000 USD.
The cost to become a regional distributor is around $50,000 USD but the master distributor gets to collect and keep 80% of that. The remaining 20% is converted to bitUSD and applied to the regional distributor's reserve account he/she may then provision that into accounts for local resellers. Regional distributors may charge a fee to resellers if they wish.
Q: Why did you structure it that way?
A: We've seen a lot of companies come and go since the time we first envisioned a desktop sized two way payment kiosk.
The one thing they all had in common were the lack of proper supply, distribution and support chains.
In a word, planning. If you fail to plan then you're planning to fail.
We are aiming for longevity for both the product and the market.
To do that we needed to first build a supply chain that would be reliable and provide us with high quality source materials.
That is taken care of and now we are building a global distribution chain.
This way parts and service are always immediately available to all owners and no one is stuck with a "broken box of useless junk that costs more to ship than to replace".
Admittedly the model introduces some extra costs that wouldn't be there if sales were direct to the public.
But the size of operations at this level also allow us to make customizations which support local markets that would simply be unaffordable for individual owners or even a small group of owners.
For example if Greece suddenly did exit the Euro, the distributor in Greece could request a firmware upgrade to Drachmas and a software update to support Drachma as a currency, then make sure to get it out to all the operators right away.
It's a lot easier for us to provide attention at that level, than to try and service individual owners all by ourselves.
Resellers make their money not only reselling, but providing service and support options that are attractive to their niche audience.
Regional distributors make money servicing resellers and master distributors make money supplying and servicing regional ones.
The other reason is also a very practical one.
There are real economies of scale from mass production.
Yet each production run needs to be customized for each customer and each market.
Things like bill acceptors need more than just a firmware flash to switch from currencies, in many cases they need to be specific to the currency (width of the bills is often an issue).
By handling production runs on a per country basis, we can speed up the delivery and time to market while handling the national customizations on our end in bulk.
You don't have to wait and hope to be in the next batch, you just contact your local reseller and buy a unit.
There are also individual customizations, things like loading the signing keys, configuring the default language settings etc.
These must be performed per user and per unit.
By allowing others to provide the end-user services as a profitable business model, we can focus our attention on driving down the production costs while still maintaining the highest levels of quality. Also owners who are savvy can still make their own customizations, while those who aren't so technically savvy can rely on someone local for everything from upgrades to adapters.
Q: What countries already have a master distributor?
A: Canada, USA & Mexico are taken already. Greece is under talks, everything else is available at the time of this writing.
Q: I'm very interested in becoming a master distributor for my country. I don't see that we have one, what do I need to do?
A: Your master distributor arrangement allows you to purchase units at a significant volume discount that is barely above our own costs. You are essentially paying for the cost of customizing the product for your entire country and then committing to buy out the entire production run in order to secure your position as the only company in your country with that right. This allows you to set pricing however you want. You are acquiring monopoly provider power in your country, and as such you have certain obligations such as warranty service and RMA that apply to the entire country. We back you up on everything, buy you're the one who deals with your country and we deal exclusively with you. If you feel like this is something you're ready for then we should probably talk. info@gemspace.net
Q; I have questions that are not addressed in this FAQ, who can I ask?
A: Just email us, info@gemspace.net
Topic: bitUSD ATM/Kiosk (Read 12637 times)
