 Bitcoin, the virtual currency that approximates cash on the internet, has been around for five years now. At first, it was just for geeks. Then, as the price started to rise, it attracted speculators. Now, it's starting to be used in the mainstream, as retailers like Tiger Direct and Overstock.com start accepting it. But it's still clunky to use and not that easy to get a hold of. And that's why the new gold rush is in Bitcoin ATMs. Michael Peary, I brought the first bi-directional Bitcoin ATM to the United States. We put the first one in Handlebar here in Austin, then we put another one at Dominican Joe's coffee shop. What we're doing here with the Bitcoin ATM is trying to provide liquidity in the market. Traditionally, the way people buy into and sell their Bitcoin is through websites like LocalBitcoins, and they have to meet up with people. They charge really high prices for doing it. We don't charge those prices. We make it easily accessible. You know, wherever they're located, you can go to them at any time and buy and sell your Bitcoins. So, who would ever want to use this thing? According to Bitcoin users and business owners who are putting the machines in bars and coffee shops, it's actually a lot of people. We're a little over two weeks now. We've had over 400 transactions, almost 500 transactions, something like that. I just cashed my Bitcoin out because I have to pay some bills. You know, I got rent and other things. You can't pay rent as easily with Bitcoin as you can with cash. I think as a means of making payment in a kind of a secure and quick way, it's a fantastic idea. I'm just not sure the current iteration of Bitcoin is the one that will be stable over the long term. This ATM is made by Robocoin, a company based in Las Vegas, and it has some serious security measures. To use it, you have to give it your cell phone number, PIN, and government-issued ID, let it take your picture, and even scan the veins in your palm. Now, I have to put my palm in. Even if you guys know my cell phone number and my PIN, it doesn't really affect it because you need my palm in order to conduct the transaction. So at this point, I'll use my wallet. This is my online wallet. I'll scan it here in the QR code reader. Here's my address. It's going to send it to that address. Right now, it's $669.90 for one Bitcoin. I want to send $10. I'm going to insert it here, and I'll just hit finish. So it's going to print a receipt. This is my proof of purchase here. I got a text message saying that my Bitcoin is on the way. I feel very secure using this machine. I don't feel like there is going to be any backlash from the government or anything. I'm going to use the receipt to help pay and organize my taxes and stuff. It's a little bit complicated the way it works, but there's a lot of people out there that are helping with the tax portion of how to deal with your money that you made in Bitcoin. So I'm not really scared that they're going to come after me and confiscate my Bitcoin in the future. I don't think that's going to be possible. Like anything, in its early stages, there's going to be teething problems. It's very unregulated at the moment. So Mt. Gox, depending on who you read, wasn't particularly well run. I think what you're going to see is an early stage fallout of probably quite a lot of businesses coming into it, going out of it. And then over time, that will balance out and stabilize as people become a little bit more responsible with how they manage Bitcoin effectively. The ATM is the easiest way to trade Bitcoin for cash on the spot, and advocates believe that machines will help bring the currency to the masses, therefore disrupting the government financial complex. Still, it took five minutes to register an account in order to buy the virtual currency, and around 15 minutes to get a transaction confirmed and cashed out. It's a little disappointing when contrasted with the hyper-optimism in the Bitcoin community, and most of the people who stopped by just wanted to gawk, not buy. I like the technology. The technology, whether Bitcoin stays or goes, the technology is here to stay. It's an excellent technology. It's the ability to send money from here to any part of the world instantaneously, and at minimal fees to no fees at all, depending on how you send it. We need to do this. We have to disrupt finance in the same way we've disrupted all other industries. The internet and the way in sort of spreading kind of responsibility for an entire industry and crowdsourcing an industry has to happen in finance the same way it's happened in other industries as well. And it will happen. I think that Bitcoin is the first step to doing that. I don't see why a payment system should be managed completely centrally. There's no reason why that shouldn't be spread over a whole load of different users. I just think that right now, I'm not sure I'd want to put my money into Bitcoin at this stage. In my mind, the success is defined by basically the number of uses of Bitcoin. If you can use it to do more and more things, that will be its success. So now that I can cash out easily, that's success. If I can go to, say, a taco truck in Austin and buy a taco with Bitcoin and they accept Bitcoin, that is success. There are now at least four Bitcoin ATMs in Austin, one in Albuquerque, one in Boston, one coming in Seattle. They're also in Calgary, London, South Korea and other places around the world. Some people believe they'll become as common as cash ATMs in under five years. The entrepreneurs buying them sure hope so, considering a machine costs $25,000 just for the hardware. But hey, that's only what, like 40 Bitcoins?