Q&A

All our machines support just about every major currency in the world. The currency is configured on each machine before shipping, and can be updated or changed anytime afterwards. Each machine can handle one currency at a time. If you’d like to know if your currency is supported, please reach out to us by emailing inquiries@fortomat.com.

We currently support Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT (ERC-20 & TRC-20), USDC (ERC-20), Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Zcash, Monero, Dash, and Tron. We add additional cryptocurrencies based on operator demand and mobile wallet support.

Almost any language is supported. If the language you're looking for is not currently available, we have a handy translation tool that will allow you to translate the UI in 30-40 minutes. Here's a list of all possible locales (including Klingon!). Customers can select on the machine interface from the multiple languages you choose.

Yes, the purchase agreement is available on our website as well as the due diligence questionnaire for U.S. buyers. Product brochures, specification sheets, and other documentation can also be provided. After purchase, we can supply commercial invoices, packing lists, and other documents relevant to importation.

Every machine is crafted, assembled and tested by our small and skilled team at our studio in northern Portugal.

Our machines ship from Portugal.

VAT is not included in the price of the machine. If your business is outside of the EU, or possesses a valid EU VATIN, we are not required to charge VAT. If you are located within the EU and do not possess a valid EU VATIN, we will be required to charge 23% VAT.

Shipping is not included in the price of the machine. Once we confirm the delivery address for your order, we can provide an accurate shipping quote which is valid for 14 days.

The shipping weight and dimensions of the units with packaging are:

• Tejo: 165 kg, 150 ✕ 60 ✕ 70 cm
• Gaia: 41 kg, 56 ✕ 48 ✕ 48 cm
• Aveiro: 155 kg, 49 ✕ 71 ✕ 175 cm
• Grândola: 375 kg, 78 ✕ 80 ✕ 172 cm

We pack your machine with the utmost care, using superior packing materials and reinforced, custom made heavy duty wooden crates. You can see an example of how they look here. Multiple shipping services are offered. The time of transit depends on the destination and import process, though it’s generally between 6 to 12 days.

50% of the price upon pre-order, with the remainder plus shipping costs due before sending. We accept Bitcoin and bank wires in Euros or Swiss francs.

Although the importer is ultimately responsible for classifying the imported items for customs, we suggest: HS 8476.89.90 – “Automatic goods-vending machines (for example, postage stamp, cigarette, food or beverage machines), including money-changing machines.”

No, they are not. The buyer is fully responsible for customs and duties in the destination country, as well as handling all aspects of the import process such as assigning broker services, customs clearance, and any fees related to the process.

Unfortunately we do not have the resources to invest in legal work for all jurisdictions. We would advise you to seek counsel in your country with a local law firm familiar with ‘blockchain’ or ‘fintech’ prior to purchasing the machine.

Our software includes a comprehensive compliance suite which you can read about. Please feel free to contact us prior to purchasing and we’ll be happy to advise in more detail how compliance works on our machines.

IDs may be scanned in two ways. The first option is ID Card Data, which prompts the user to hold the back of their license against the scanning bay and parses the PDF-417 code found on U.S., Canadian, and South African drivers licenses. The data therein, consisting of most if not all information printed on the license front, is uploaded securely to the back-end, retrievable within the operator admin and database.

The second option, useful for international ID cards and passports, is ID Card Photo, which prompts the user to hold the front of their ID card to the scanning bay and captures a photo of the front of the ID. The machine uploads this to the back-end and the ID is available for review within the operator admin, and can be accepted or rejected.

Yes. Operators may choose different fiat thresholds at which to invoke tiers of ID verification, as well as a per user per day limit. For instance, you may wish to collect phone numbers at $100, and scan an ID once they wish to buy over $500, and set a max per day limit of $7,000.

Yes, in fact, the default state of the machine is with ID verification disabled. If the operator is obligated to verify ID in their jurisdiction, with a couple of clicks in the backend one can get set up in no time and enable KYC options on their machines.

Yes. Please see our summary of our latest compliance features. Additionally, we’d welcome you to contact us for a demo and to discuss your particular compliance needs.

Of course, we recommend that you consult an attorney. However, you should consider things such as:

1. What federal laws should I pay special attention to;
2. Does the state where I operate have additional regulations;
3. What ongoing obligations will I have;
4. Are there other legal considerations I should keep in mind;
5. What law firm do you recommend? We have addressed some of those questions below.

While there are many, you especially need to be aware of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), which is enforced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). Depending on how a Bitcoin ATM is configured, you may need to comply with the BSA. Bitcoin ATM operators are “exchangers” as defined by FinCEN, and as a result, must register as “Money Services Businesses,” as well as meet other requirements under the BSA.

Different states have different requirements, depending on your specific business operations. As a general matter, almost every state has some licensing and ongoing reporting requirements for a Money Transmitter License.

It is important to note that the way your Bitcoin ATM is structured may affect whether compliance with certain state level laws is necessary. It is not necessary to connect to cryptocurrency exchanges, and therefore registration requirements could be avoided in some states. However, if your Bitcoin ATM is connected to an exchange, additional registration may be required in those same states.

Depending on your business structure, California, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, and New York may have a higher barrier of entry for Bitcoin ATM operators, requiring high financial reserve and bond requirements, and expensive application processes. However, the market size may make the difficulties worthwhile.

Yes. The BSA requires that your company have an Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) compliance program.

The BSA compliance program should demonstrate, in some detail, the company’s efforts to prohibit and prevent money laundering and criminal activities. The scope and thoroughness of a plan will vary, depending on the size, scope, and geographic location of your company. Your company’s AML compliance program should demonstrate:

• Internal Policies and Controls.
• Designation of a Compliance Officer.
• Ongoing Employee Training.
• Program Auditing.
• Transaction Monitoring and Reporting.
  • Suspicious Activity Reports (“SAR”).
  • Currency Transaction Reporting (“CTR”).
  • Office of Foreign Assets Controls (“OFAC”) Reporting.
• Customer Due Diligence.
  • Customer Identification Protocol (“CIP”).
  • Collect Know Your Customer (“KYC”) information.

There are several steps you and your attorney should consider. For example, while not strictly necessary, setting up a business entity is generally advisable. It has several advantages, such as limiting your personal liability and allowing you to share profits among partners. Additionally, you likely will want to enter into contracts with other parties (such as leases for where your Bitcoin ATM will be located).

No, we don’t and we can’t. By design, we aren’t able to see the transactions that go through your machine. We made a decision to keep the network of Fortomat machines private and distributed. You own the hardware outright and all the software's source code is published for public auditing.

We do not share in the revenue of your machines. Unlike our competitors, that's a 0% fee from us on any of your transactions. We have no access to your backend or any of your or your users' data, and machines operate fully independently of us: following the Bitcoin ethos.

Use of our software, along with ongoing access to updates and support, requires that your machines be registered with us for a flat monthly fee under our Operator Software Agreement.

As the operator, you have full control over your cryptocurrency wallet.

This would depend on traffic and your convenience. How many coins are you selling every day, and how often do you plan to replenish your wallet?

By using the exchange trading option on your back-end. With each purchase of cryptocurrency at the machine, the back-end will convert the same amount from fiat to cryptocurrency in your exchange account, capturing the present value. You can read more about how that works in our article.

The back-end office is software that is intended to be installed on a server run by the operator. We have a simple installation guide for Digital Ocean, whose set up process we provide support for, but some operators have run it on an Amazon instance, or their own hardware, as well. An Ubuntu Server 20.04 or later system should be able to install the back-end.

Transaction logs and status, SMS and email notifications, balance alerts, wallet configuration, price sourcing, auto-trading on exchanges, commission setting, fixed fees, minimum transaction amounts, language configuration, currency setting, remote reboots, Coin ATM Radar linkage, terms and conditions screen setup, machine state logging, debugging, compliance and customer details, secure client/server pairing, and more. Contact us for a demo.

We currently support: BitPay, Bitstamp, Kraken, itBit, CEX.io, Binance.com, Binance.us, and Coinbase, with more to come.

The machine’s hot wallets reside on your secured virtual private server. You alone have full control and possession of the wallet keys. We encourage regular wallet and seed backups.

The machine can be linked to an exchange so that with each customer transaction, you purchase back the same amount of coins at the current price (less your commission).

This allows you to avoid volatility and keep a constant supply. Every so often you'll transfer the coins purchased on your exchange account to replenish the machine's wallet.

We have direct integrations for Kraken, Bitstamp, itBit, CEX.io, Binance.com, and Binance.us, with more on the way.

The admin hosts pruned node wallets for most cryptocurrencies: bitcoind (BTC), bchn (BCH), litecoind (LTC), monerod (XMR), dashd (DASH). There is also an Infura plugin for ETH, USDT (ERC-20), and USDC (ERC-20), TronGrid for TRX and USDT (TRC-20), and a multi-sig BitGo wallet option for BTC, BCH, ZEC, DASH, and LTC.

This would depend on location and venue as well as other market conditions. But for example, assuming an average transaction of $200, you will need approximately 4-5 transactions per day in order to profit from the machine. You can expect the first few months to be slower and have traffic pick up as customers hear about the machine and begin to rely on it for repeat purchases.

The top Fortomat machines have volumes north of $300,000 per month, other locations are handling over $70,000 per month. We believe the $20,000 average is on the rise, but as we don’t have access to machine’s data, it takes us a while to aggregate voluntary information, kindly provided to us from our operators. One thing we know for certain, the numbers are going up rapidly.

Quite. For some, operating BTMs is their primary business. For others, a steady stream of additional income. Once you have the backend set up, liquidity, and legal aspects of the business in place, it’s easy to install machines in new locations using your existing infrastructure. The auditable lock option on the Tejo, Aveiro, and Grândola allows for armoured cash collection companies to service your machines so you can be less hands-on.

You have full control over your commission, and it’s yours to keep. Your profit is realized in dispensing less bitcoins (or cash) than you would if your commissions were set to 0%, and thus retained in the form of additional cash held within the machine’s vault or a surplus of bitcoin in the machine's wallet (however you wish to view it).

From discussions with our operators, it seems clear it's key to be in a well situated location in a high foot-traffic area. Train stations, trendy shops in trendy neighborhoods, easily accessible (in and out for return customers), etc. Imagine where you'd want to go in your city if you wanted it to be the easiest to reach several times a month.

Experience is another important factor. Several months in, you'll know what the reference volume goal is and will be able to move the weaker performing machines to better locations.

We have a guide for suggestions to gain publicity from your launch and would be glad to share your new machine launches on our social media. Just make certain to take high quality photos and post them on your own social media first!

We offer price breaks on bulk purchases of quantities 5, 10, 20 and up. For current pricing, see the ‘Price Tiers’ section on the bottom of each machine page.

We don’t have agreements with any, though several of our operators have agreements with cash collection agencies. One requirement that keeps coming up is the need for an electronic auditable lock, which is an option on the Tejo, Aveiro, and Grândola.

With a one-way machine, your customers only have the option to buy, while a two-way machine offers the functionality to both buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

Yes, it is possible. It simply requires an upgrade kit consisting of the dispenser and a new front mouth plate. Please contact us for details if you’d like to upgrade yours.

No, it is not possible. The Gaia is designed to be a one-way machine.

Yes, a thermal receipt printer is an optional addition on all models. It is used to print a paper receipt for the transaction. The printer is a Nippon NP 2511D-2. We ship a paper roll with the purchase of a machine with the receipt printer. If the operator decides not to get a receipt printer, for each transaction the customer will see an on-screen receipt they can take a photo of, or you have the option to enable sending receipts via SMS receipt sending.

The Tejo, Aveiro, and Grândola are designed to be anchored into the floor with four M12 bolts. The Gaia mounts to a countertop or wall with included boltwork and mounting bracket.

In addition, the Grândola has an optional anti-ramming plinth that defends against more advanced vehicle ramming attacks by securing the vault deep into the ground with massive chemically bonded bolts.

The Tejo has a cash-in box that holds 1,000 notes, with the option to upgrade that at an additional cost to a 3,000 box, making it our largest bill capacity model. For cash-out, the Tejo has cassettes that hold from 1,000 (2✕500, for two denominations) to 2,000 notes at an additional cost (3✕500 for three denominations or 4✕500 for four denominations).

The Gaia has a cash box that holds 1,000 notes.

A recycler is a cash management component that both accepts and dispenses cash in the same unit and, crucially, is able to dispense cash that it has previously accepted from an end-user.

This allows the machine to potentially continue operating without cash collection or filling, if deposits and withdrawals are balanced. It also opens up possibilities for improved user experience, by allowing more flexible returns of deposited cash.

All of our current models work over Ethernet connections. Ethernet is highly preferred over wireless, though if needed, a wireless network adapter can be used to convert Wi-Fi or 4G-5G to a wired connection. You can read more about connectivity best practices in our article here.

The machines are designed for indoor use only.

We've published all our mask files, but if you’d prefer to receive your machines with wraps pre-applied from the studio, we’d be happy to print and apply a branded vinyl wrap to your machines. Prices vary depending on quantity and coverage, so please contact us for pricing. We can also provide a simple design service based on materials you provide such as a logo, vector graphics, etc.

Yes, it can scan any valid QR code.

We don’t currently have plans for fingerprint scanners or biometrics.

Our machines only convert cash to crypto and vice-versa, however, the Tejo has space for a credit card reader and if demand is there we may create an upgrade kit in the future to bring credit card support to it. Though, this is not currently on our roadmap.

We provide all machines a 12-month limited warranty on hardware parts. If a part should fail in the course of normal operation, we'll help you to diagnose the problem and we'll ship you a replacement part from our studio in Portugal, and you'd send the defective part back. All parts are operator-serviceable and we'll walk you through replacing it.

Low, it’s mostly just the transactions and pings to your back-end. The only thing that will take up significant bandwidth are software updates, when we push them, and document images collected for AML/KYC, if necessary.

The machines are very efficient both in use and in standby. Their power rating is at 150W, similar to a desktop computer when in use.

No, addresses are scanned at the machine via QR codes.

While all of our source code is publicly available, our software is licensed. Use of our software requires registration with our Operator Software Agreement, which also provides continued updates and ongoing support.

Details on our new operator admin may be found here: fortomat.com/admin/

While we do not provide custom software services, our software's source code is publicly available and we'd be happy to point you in the direction of a third-party development team familiar with our platform. However, we are not able to provide support for non-Fortomat software versions.

Zero-confirmation payout limits are defined by the operator. If the limit is exceeded, the user will be asked to confirm a phone number. When the transaction confirms, the user will receive an SMS with a redeem code.

If the local connection drops in the middle of a transaction, the back-end will automatically send the final balance for the transaction once the machine regains a connection. The user is presented with a ‘We got this’ screen, informing that their transaction will be on its way a bit later.

You have full control over your back-end and private keys. We have no visibility or access to your machine’s wallet or settings, as the system is decentralised. We emphasize security during setup and have resources to help you maintain a high degree of security for your machine and wallet. The Bitcoin ATMs have no open network ports and the server software installs a strict firewall.

We are relentless and won't stop working until your issue is solved. We use industrial components and hardware issues are rare, but when they occur we are quick to ship out replacements via courier at our expense. Our operators know they can rely on our support.

If any hardware fails in the first six months, we will either fix or replace it and provide guidance for re-installation. An additional six months of warranty is available to registered machines. Beyond that period we provide spare parts for a charge.

Support is provided at no cost for the first six months of any new machine. Ongoing technical support is provided to validly registered machines. There is a €55 monthly fee per registered machine. Details of our support agreement may be found here.

Troubleshooting and shipping of replacement parts whenever necessary. All components are easy to replace and do not require a professional.

Basic computer skills. We have a lot of guides and video tutorials to walk you through the process. Basic Linux command line knowhow is helpful as well, but not a must-have. It is also possible to install the back-end server prior to the purchase of the machine – just ask our sales team for more info.

Through our Operator Software Agreement, we provide direct e-mail support, scheduled live chats, ongoing software updates, and a copious knowledgebase with many relevant articles on getting your machine running and troubleshooting any software or hardware issues.

Updates for registered machines are pushed remotely to your ATMs by our team. We will only update your machine with your permission and at a time that suits you. Updates to the back-end are accomplished by a quick update script.