How Long Does A Bitcoin ATM Take to Use? Everything You Need to Know
If you’ve ever wanted to trade Bitcoins quickly and safely, you may have found yourself wondering, “How long does a Bitcoin ATM take to buy or send Bitcoins?” or more specifically, “How long does it take to receive Bitcoins from an ATM?” Bitcoin ATMs can take up to ten minutes to send transactions depending on the company, with Pelicoin’s ATMs being known to send transactions at an incredibly fast rate. However, no matter which company’s Bitcoin ATMs you use, it will usually take between 30 to 60 minutes (and sometimes even longer) for the Bitcoins to show up in your digital wallet.
Especially, if it’s your first time using a cryptocurrency ATM, you might be worried when you finish your part of the process but don’t see your crypto in your digital wallet right away. Why exactly do Bitcoins not show up immediately in your digital wallet after using a Bitcoin ATM? Read on to learn more.
How Long Does It Take To Receive Bitcoins from an ATM?
When you think about using a Bitcoin ATM, you probably imagine an experience similar to a traditional ATM. That’s reasonable, since cryptocurrency ATMs are designed to provide your crypto in a familiar format to your traditional currency ATM experience. The way you interact with the machine is quite similar in both cases. However, one major difference is that traditional ATMs provide your cash almost instantaneously once you select the amount you want to withdraw and confirm your transaction. You might expect the same from a Bitcoin ATM, but you need to understand an important distinction. The question, “How long does it take to receive Bitcoins?” is a different question from how long it takes to use a Bitcoin ATM from the user’s perspective. This means that while it’s a quick process from your side, without a ton of information to enter, the machine will take a while to make the crypto show up in your wallet, for a variety of reasons.
The Quick Part of Using a Bitcoin ATM: Making Your Request
The good news is that crypto ATMs are not difficult to use, and it doesn’t take long to use one, in terms of entering your information and requesting the crypto you want. Here is the process for using a Pelicoin Bitcoin ATM:
First, tap the “Buy Coins” button on the home screen of the ATM to get started with your transaction.
Choose the U.S. dollar amount you want to exchange for cryptocurrency.
Input your mobile phone number using the ATM’s numeric keypad.
Type in the verification code texted to your phone using the ATM's keypad.
Indicate which cryptocurrency you want to buy - Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum.
Select your preferred cryptocurrency delivery method: You can choose to scan a QR code from your digital wallet, type in your wallet address, or create a paper wallet at the machine.
As you can see, these steps are fairly straightforward and do not typically take more than a few minutes to complete. However, this is only the user side of the process. The machine contacts a cryptocurrency exchange on the user’s behalf and depending on various factors and conditions at a given time, you might be waiting a while to receive your crypto. Let’s take a look at what can affect the time between when you make your request and when you can actually access your cryptocurrency.
What Affects How Long It Takes To Get Your Crypto from an ATM
The time it takes from when you start using a cryptocurrency ATM until you actually receive your crypto depends on several factors. Naturally, it can take a while to use a crypto ATM for the first time, even when the machine walks you through the process. You may also be asked to provide additional identity documentation for larger transactions, which could make things take a bit longer. However, after that, there are many other reasons a transaction may be slower than you’d like. Issues such as network congestion on the blockchain and the current fee for blockchain transactions also play a role. It makes sense that busier networks will result in longer wait times, but both that and the fee warrant additional explanation.
Why Don’t Bitcoins Show Up Right Away After Using a Bitcoin ATM?
The answer to the question “how long does a Bitcoin ATM take to send money” isn’t as simple to answer as it might first appear. That’s because the Bitcoin ATM operator doesn’t control the network through which the Bitcoins move, and of course has no control over how many transactions are in the queue to be verified at the same time . It’s important to understand a little bit about how this Bitcoin network works in order to understand the time it takes to transfer Bitcoins through Bitcoin ATMs, particularly why Bitcoin mining has an impact on this time. In general, the confirmation on the blockchain time for a transaction made via a Bitcoin ATM ranges from 10 minutes to longer than an hour, depending on network congestion and fees.
The network through which Bitcoins are traded is called the blockchain. The blockchain is a decentralized platform that allows users to exchange Bitcoins without giving away any of their private information. This is very different from the networks used to exchange traditional currencies, in which the personal information of every user, such as their addresses and social security numbers, is attached to each transaction they make. You don’t have to fully understand the blockchain to know how it impacts transaction time, but just bear in mind that it is a major reason that Bitcoin ATMs take longer to give you the currency you want compared to traditional ATMs.
Using cryptocurrencies appeals to a growing number of people because of the fact that their transactions are linked only to their unique user ID codes rather than any personal data. As we’ve seen in recent years, traditional networks that store personal details, whether social media sites or government bodies, can be all too easily breached, allowing the personal information of thousands to fall into the wrong hands. Since the blockchain does not attach personal data to transactions, the blockchain can be a far more secure financial option for transactions. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that regulation of cryptocurrency is still evolving, since it is a relatively new aspect of finance. Different places vary as to what personal information they require a user to provide, including what forms of identification are required to use a Bitcoin ATM, to comply with requirements such as Know Your Customer and Anti-money Laundering. For most transactions, Pelicoin Bitcoin ATMs only require you to have your cell phone handy to receive a verification code that you will put into the machine.
How Long Does A Bitcoin ATM Take to Send Money Through the Blockchain?
Some Bitcoin ATMs, such as Pelicoin’s, are capable of sending transactions instantly to the blockchain. However, the amount of time that it takes for the blockchain to process your transaction is generally between 30 to 60 minutes, although it can sometimes be longer or shorter.
Why is it so hard to get a solid answer to “how long does a Bitcoin ATM take to complete a transaction”? There are two main reasons why the blockchain’s processing time can vary so much with each transaction: network traffic and fees
1. Current Amount of Network Traffic on the Blockchain
As you might expect, the amount of network traffic that the blockchain is experiencing at the time of your transaction greatly affects how long the processing time takes. More specifically, the number of pending transactions currently in the blockchain has a huge bearing on the speed that all those transactions get approved. The more transactions awaiting approval, the more time it will take to authorize each one.
How do these cryptocurrency transactions get approved? Bitcoin miners are responsible for verifying transactions on the blockchain. These Bitcoin miners are given “blocks” to mine that not only earn them more Bitcoins, but also contain Bitcoin transactions awaiting approval. It usually takes miners about ten minutes to mine an entire block.
You might now be wondering why Bitcoin transactions generally take 30-60 minutes to be approved if one confirmation is attained within ten minutes. This is because it takes 3-6 confirmations for a transaction on the blockchain to be verified. The exact number of confirmations needed will vary based on the particular digital wallet, but typically wallets require three confirmations to validate a Bitcoin transaction before it’s completed. This is why it usually takes 30-60 minutes, sometimes longer, for transactions to be verified. To further complicate things, some wallets will show the “unconfirmed” transaction in your wallet instantly, while others wait for 1-3 confirmations before posting the transaction. Our blog has more information about the different types of Bitcoin wallets if you need more background information before choosing one.
It’s also worth noting that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have greatly increased in popularity over the last few years. Since just the recent year of 2019, Bitcoin users jumped from about 1.5 million users to a whopping 2.6 million. Bitcoin continues to become more and more of a household name, as people learn more about how Bitcoin is different from traditional currency and why that might be beneficial for them.
On the whole, increased usage of Bitcoin is a good thing, as it means greater worldwide acceptance and usage of cryptocurrencies. But this increased popularity may also result in transactions taking longer to be approved.
2. Current Fee for Blockchain Transactions
The other main factor affecting blockchain processing time is the current fee range for blockchain transactions. The average fee can have a wide range. Blockchain users can choose if they want to pay the current low fee, high fee, or somewhere in the middle. With Bitcoin ATMs, the ATM operator pays this fee on behalf of the customer. Most operators “target” a certain block, by which they want the transaction to be completed. The mining fee paid is automatically adjusted accordingly.
The blockchain automatically prioritizes the validation of transactions with higher fees. So the more you spend on your Bitcoin processing fee, the higher your block will be in a miner’s queue, and the faster your transaction will be processed.
Transactions that do not carry a high fee will not be prioritized and will instead go to the mempool. These transactions will wait in the mempool to be queued into a block when space becomes available. This is generally the route that most people, preferring to avoid high fees, take, meaning that they sometimes have to wait a little longer to get their transactions approved.
To further complicate things, Pelicoin can pay an adequate mining fee to have a transaction completed within 30 minutes. However, after five minutes (and once the transaction has already been sent out), there may be a drastic increase or decrease in network volume. This can cause that fee to become inadequate, causing the transaction to take hours. Conversely, it can cause that fee to become more than adequate, verifying the transaction in minutes. For this reason, Pelicoin pays the mining fees for its customers and builds this into its transaction cost.
How long does it take to receive Bitcoins from a Pelicoin Bitcoin ATM?
So, how long does it take to receive Bitcoins from a Pelicoin Bitcoin ATM? The answer is that it depends to a small extent on how fast you input your instructions for the transaction into the ATM, but mostly depends on aspects beyond your control. The current amount of network traffic on the blockchain and the adequacy of the fee for blockchain transactions during the time between when the ATM sends your transaction and when it is completed. This might not be the most satisfying answer, but the general takeaway is that the process will be simple on your end, even if you won’t necessarily know how long it will take to receive your cryptocurrency. Pelicoin will take care of the rest.
Pelicoin ATMs Are The Safest Bitcoin ATMs Around
As we’ve seen, it can be difficult to give an easy answer when asked, “How long does a Bitcoin ATM take to process my transaction?” or “How long does it take to receive Bitcoins?” But it is easy to give an answer to, “Where can I find a highly secure Bitcoin ATM?” That answer is Pelicoin.
As the largest and safest network of cryptocurrency ATMs in the entire Gulf South, Pelicoin is the ATM system to use for all your Bitcoin needs. Pelicoin makes using Bitcoin ATMs as easy as can be, even if it’s your first time buying Bitcoin or creating a digital wallet.
To learn more about Bitcoin processing times, our secure network of ATMs, and other facts about our ATMs or cryptocurrency, check out our FAQs or give us a call at 855-PELICOIN.