CALGARY - It’s the latest craze in virtual currency and the Bitcoin set down a physical presence on Friday as its first ATM was launched in Calgary.

The machine was installed at Waves coffee shop, on 17th Avenue S.W.

“We’re one of the last major cities in the world actually to get an ATM,” said Dave Bradley, of BitcoinBrains, the company operating the machine. “There’s probably almost 200 ATMs worldwide. Pretty much any major city you can name.”

The ATM allows people to purchase Bitcoin currency that will be directed to their account online or to a virtual wallet on a smartphone. Actual Bitcoins can also come out of the machine. As of Friday afternoon, the Bitcoin currency was valued at close to $700 CAD.

The virtual currency can then be used at participating merchants with transactions primarily taking place in the virtual world.

Bradley said the company plans to add more ATMs in the city in the future.

“We chose Waves because the first ATM in the world actually launched in Waves coffee in Vancouver. That was in October,” said Bradley. “They were very successful there.

“At the basic level, it allows anybody who wants to buy or sell Bitcoins for Canadian dollars. It can spit out Bitcoins or it can spit out Canadian cash.”

Bradley said Bitcoin is a digital currency which can be stored on smartphones or a computer. They can be used to buy things online or at certain participating businesses.

“There’s about 100,000 merchants now worldwide that will accept it. It’s growing really, really rapidly,” said Bradley. “I would think at this point pretty much every online retailer is seriously looking at Bitcoins.

“There’s probably maybe 10 or 20 contractors (in Calgary) that will take Bitcoins that I know of. We just got this point of sale system going (in partnership with Calgary-based VirtEx, Canadian Virtual Exchange) . . . and it allows any merchant to accept Bitcoins instantly on the phone, or tablet, or computer and they automatically get the Canadian dollars.

“Every Bitcoin is within a public address and then you have a private code which controls that private address.”

Edgar Apolonio, co-owner of the Waves coffee shop, said his store is accepting Bitcoins.

“It’s quite popular nowadays and it will be good for business because they don’t charge any fees anything like that so we save money out of that,” said Apolonio.

On Friday, the new ATMs attracted curious consumers at the coffee shop.

“I like the idea. It’s useful if you are using Bitcoins or this kind of currency,” said Omar Estrada, who was putting $20 Canadian into the machine and converting it to the virtual currency. “I know about the system. I’ve never bought Bitcoins before.”

The digital currency has not been without controversy.

In March, it was revealed that a Canadian bank specializing in Bitcoins closed after computer hackers stole its digital currency.

The closure of the Flexcoin bank, at the time, came just a week after the collapse of Mt. Gox, a major Bitcoin exchange. The Japan-based Mt. Gox also linked its demise to an electronic heist.

Flexcoin said 896 Bitcoins were stolen from its online vault. That translated into a loss of about $600,000, based on Bitcoin’s current trading value.

The Mt. Gox collapse wiped out about 750,000 Bitcoins, or about six per cent of the currency’s total circulation.

Supporters are touting the five-year-old currency as a way to lower transaction fees by cutting out banks and payment processors that collect billions of dollars annually by serving as financial middlemen. Skeptics, including government leaders around the world, deride Bitcoins as a currency suitable only for speculators.

mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com

Twitter.com/MTone123

With a file from Associated Press