If you don't haveaccess to a Swiss bank account, you will soon be able to keep your currencysecure by instead buying some Bitcoin at any Swiss railway station. Thecryptocurrency will be available for purchase at all Swiss Federal Railways(SBB) ticket machines in November.
Bitcoin hype hasdied down over the past two years in North America and other parts of theworld, but during that time SBB determined that there did appear to be a marketfor selling the digital currency in Switzerland.
SBB has over 1,000 ticket machines, most of them available around the clock, which means that a ubiquitous network for obtaining Bitcoin in Switzerland will literally go online overnight. Swiss Railways has partnered with Swiss payments company SweePay, which will act as the intermediary for Bitcoin purchases on SBB ticket machines.
To buy Bitcoin atone of the machines, customers use their mobile phone number as a means ofidentification. Transactions are initiated by scanning a QR code on the buyer'sBitcoin wallet and confirmed via a security code sent to the mobile phone.
The maximum amountof Bitcoin that can be bought in a transaction is 500 Swiss Francs (US$506, €461). While Bitcoin can be purchased at any ticket machine, thecurrency can not be used to actually pay for railway tickets at any of themachines.
Bitcoin will beavailable for purchase on the machines starting November 11.
Source: Swiss Federal Railways