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The first Bitcoin ATM in the world is believed to launch in Canada this week.
According to reports from CBC, Mitchell Demeter, co-founder of Vancouver bitcoin trading company Bitcoiniacs and part-owner of Robocoin, has invested in five such machines to be placed across Canada.
Bitcoin is an emerging digital currency that isn’t controlled by any authority such as a central bank. It recently made headlines when it was believed to be the currency linked to the success of the now-defunct Silk Road, an underground and virtual drug trafficking marketplace.
Silk Road was shut down earlier this month.
The new ATM, which will open near downtown Vancouver coffee house Waves, will trade Canadian dollars for online Bitcoins. Users are required to do a palm scan and are permitted to exchange up to $3,000 per day. When the coins are exchanged, they are then entered in your online bitcoin wallet. All transactions will be anonymous.
“Basically, it just make it easier for people to buy and sell Bitcoins and hopefully will drive the adoption of Bitcoin, and make it more accessible for people,” says Demeter, the owner of Bitcoiniacs.
Four more kiosks will arrive in December and although their locations are not yet certain, Bitcoiniacs says it’s eyeing major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa.
Bitcoins currently trade for about $200, but have swung in value from $13 to $250 in the past year. Last month a U.S. judge ruled that Bitcoin, which has been around since 2009, is a real currency.
