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There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

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Re: There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

#32

Post by thisisdave »

jacquesm wrote: post #28
supahfly_remix wrote: post #10

I like the idea, but feel like I'd get robbed on the way home.

That could happen with any ATM.

If someone buys gold from this machine, potential thieves can guarantee that they'll be carrying at least $255, which is way more than most people take from ATMs.

Re: There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

#33

Post by andrewSC »

bane wrote: post #30
LeonM wrote: post #6

I have seen more than one of these "vending machines" in Dubai. Interesting thing is that they constantly adjust the price of the gold bars as the price of gold fluctuates. I guess these machines need a permanent internet connection to receive the current gold price. Who will be the first to do a MITM and adjust the price to 0.001? ;)

Out of curiosity, other than owning a lump of gold, what exactly are you supposed to do with it once you have it?

Talk about how you own a lump of gold, of course.

Re: There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

#34

Post by [deleted] »

bane wrote: post #30
LeonM wrote: post #6

I have seen more than one of these "vending machines" in Dubai. Interesting thing is that they constantly adjust the price of the gold bars as the price of gold fluctuates. I guess these machines need a permanent internet connection to receive the current gold price. Who will be the first to do a MITM and adjust the price to 0.001? ;)

Out of curiosity, other than owning a lump of gold, what exactly are you supposed to do with it once you have it?

[deleted]

Re: There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

#35

Post by pessimizer »

Killah911 wrote: post #8
LeonM wrote: post #6

I have seen more than one of these "vending machines" in Dubai. Interesting thing is that they constantly adjust the price of the gold bars as the price of gold fluctuates. I guess these machines need a permanent internet connection to receive the current gold price. Who will be the first to do a MITM and adjust the price to 0.001? ;)

You'd have to have quite a bit of inside info to do that & given hopefully the designers of the machine had enough forethought to not connect the thing to the open internet. To top that off they may even have programmed it to stop if the price variations get too crazy (99% drop may trigger it).

You're making the mistake of assuming that the people who built it are as competent as you are when you're relaxed and posting on HN, rather than being the lowest bidder and/or somebody's cousin and/or having a two-week deadline. It's probably implemented in javascript + nodejs w/mongodb.

Re: There's A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street

#36

Post by drdaeman »

bane wrote: post #30
LeonM wrote: post #6

I have seen more than one of these "vending machines" in Dubai. Interesting thing is that they constantly adjust the price of the gold bars as the price of gold fluctuates. I guess these machines need a permanent internet connection to receive the current gold price. Who will be the first to do a MITM and adjust the price to 0.001? ;)

Out of curiosity, other than owning a lump of gold, what exactly are you supposed to do with it once you have it?

Store as an asset?
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