Khachapuri, cigarettes and bitcoin: the first cryptocurrency exchange point in Moscow has opened at the Kursk railway station

The first cryptocurrency exchange point in Moscow has been operating at the entrance to the Kursky railway station for several weeks, but attention was paid to it only recently.

The exchange office "Sberbank" is located between a bakery with khachapuri and grilled chicken and a tobacco shop. You can buy and sell cryptocurrency in it — however, for this you need to get a client card.

While cryptocurrencies promise users anonymity and lack of bureaucracy, Sberbank decided to do exactly the opposite.

Passers—by are lured to Sberbank directly from the street - a girl in a vest stands at the entrance and distributes leaflets. Thanks to this method of promotion, everyone began to learn about the exchanger.

According to the story of the correspondent of Viva la Cloud, now Sberbank offers only two operations — to buy or sell bitcoins. The exchanger does not work with other cryptocurrencies. According to the manager, there are already a small number of clients, however, mostly people are "interested".

You can use the services of Sberbank only in person. Apparently, the main advantage of cryptocurrencies — anonymity — has not been heard in the exchanger. The manager claims that this is how they take care of customers.

To perform the operation, you need to have a passport or at least a driver's license. A contract is concluded with customers and then a plastic card with a "public key" is issued — in fact, the address of the wallet. In addition, a "private key" is issued in the envelope, known only to the client and Sberbank. At the same time, the manager promises that they carefully protect this information.

The service commission is 1 percent of the transaction amount with a minimum amount of 3 thousand rubles.

However, as the journalist noted, the exchange rate at the exchanger is not the most profitable — the scoreboard at the entrance gives the following figures: "Buying 1 bitcoin — 455 thousand rubles, selling — 309 thousand rubles."

Thus, the spread is almost 150 thousand rubles — despite the fact that most exchangers offer 426 and 418 thousand rubles for the same operations.