The ordinary people – and more – from
It began as a way of rewarding people for solving difficult maths puzzles, now Bitcoin is booming, with each cryptocurrency coin worth more than £3,200. Anna Lewis reports...
TUCKED away in a Cardiff street known for its quirkiness and independence is what looks like a typical cash machine.
But when you read the sign above, which says “Elite Bitcoin”, you realise it’s something a bit different. And while other people head to the coffee stall, skateboard shop and vintage clothes shops that you’ll find in Womanby Street in the city centre, at this machine people are buying and selling Bitcoin, the digital currency that’s seen its value – and profile – explode this year.
If you’re selling, the machine dispenses the Bitcoin value in cash like a regular ATM. If you’re buying, you use regular cash or card and convert your chosen amount into the digital currency. And behind the scenes the company that owns it is acting as a broker, sourcing the currency for a fee.
Over the space of just an hour, a trickle of people come to use the ATM. People who’ve invested include a skateboard shop co-owner and a mother in her fifties who’s got her whole family involved.
After being convinced by a friend, Cardiff Skateboarding Club co-owner Mike Ridout originally bought £50 worth of Bitcoin a few years ago.
He said: “I just looked after it and now it’s worth £15,000. But will the bubble burst? I don’t know. I haven’t spent it so it just sits there and I’m wondering what to do with it. It’s hard to ignore. Some of my friends use it and I know a lot of people use it for general transactions. I don’t want to make a mistake online with it. I’m hoping it will become a little more regulated.”
One ATM user I talk to is selfemployed clothes designer Michael Smith, who found his old login details to a Bitcoin app after thinking them lost for five years. His Bitcoin is now worth around £13,000.
Michael, 28, said: “I had a Bitcoin app on my old phone and I lost that phone. The Bitcoin stays in the system but I didn’t have my 10-letter passcode. Last night I was going through some old hard drives and found a screenshot of it backed up. It was in a folder of random pictures.”
The next person to use the machine is a 55-year-old mother of one. After travelling down from Rhymney on the train her first stop is to use the ATM before doing some shopping.
After being told about the online currency by her son earlier this year, her whole family is now involved, including her 80-year-old father. They have around £3,000 worth of it.
The private carer said: “I haven’t invested much because we don’t have a lot of spare money. My son used to live in London and moved to Spain to work and he said ‘anything you have just put in.’
“I was a bit nervous before I did it but now Bitcoin is more stable.”
Despite having no previous knowledge of cryptocurrency, together the family have invested around £800 and have watched their money grow.
The self-taught investor said: “I’m predicting its value will go up to $100,000 but different people say different things. We used to use my father’s credit card to buy it and we’d give him cash but I just Googled ‘nearby Bitcoin machine’ and it’s easier, even if there is a fee. My dad had a pension and put in it for 30 years. He’s put the money in here instead.
“We’re just seeing if we can make a difference to our lives instead of plodding on through the same old wheel. I’ve got a lot of friends who said they wouldn’t do it but you have to take a chance in life.
“We’ve never had any money so if there’s a way of making life a bit better then there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.”
These are relatively small sums, but there are those who say they’ve made serious money.
A property developer and invester by trade, Adrian Hibbert started investing in the digital currency in 2015 when he bought around $100,000 worth of Bitcoin mining programmes.
Adrian, who is originally from the Rhondda but now lives in Cardiff Bay, says that pot is now worth around $7.9m in cryptocurrency, around £7m.
After the 2008 financial crisis he started to look online for different ways to invest his money. After working in affiliate online marketing, he got on to Bitcoin.
He said: “I missed the early days of it in 2009, but by 2015 I started to see the trend appear online. I made around £1m from property, which is my favourite market. It was good times.
“But property comes with its downsides – tenants trashing the place, people gazumping you, solicitors, estate agents – everyone adds to it.”
For Adrian the concept has