First Bitcoin ATM goes live
So far Bitcoins have been useable for buying things on the web, but now a group of Vancouver students have built what they claim to be the first Bitcoin ATM.  Users log into their Bitcoin accounts using the equivalent of a personal Pin number, and then transfer whatever quantity of Bitcoins they want onto their smart phones. Then﻿ they﻿ use the phone-wallet for the typical small payments of food or coffee at B﻿itcoin-accepting establishments.

Three young entrepreneurs have opened an ATM in Vancouver, Canada, calling it the world's first ATM able to exchange bitcoins for any official currency.

The machine, delivered to Vancouver by US manufacturer Robocoin, stands against a wall of a popular coffee shop, and resembles an ordinary cash ATM.

Gabriel Scheare uses what is claimed to be the world's first bitcoin ATM at Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, Canada. Credit: Getty Images/AFP

However, instead of cash transactions it swaps Canadian dollars for bitcoins, the virtual currency of the internet invented in 2008 by an anonymous computer scientist known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.