ATM’s have been around for a while now, but this one in a humble coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada can lay claim to being the world’s first cash machine for bitcoins.

The online currency, invented by an anonymous computer programmer about four years ago is now starting to gain mainstream acceptance.

Cheyne Mackie is the Co-Founder of Bitcoiniacs, the company that brought the ATM to Vancouver and now wants to roll the model out. He said: “Our target audience will be everybody. We want to make it easy for my mum, my grandma, my aunt and my brother to come down and buy and sell bitcoins.”

And business take-up is increasing, especially as they compete for the attentions of a younger, tech-savvy demographic.

But there are concerns that drug trafficking and money laundering could take place online. Over twenty million euros worth of bitcoins were seized from the owner of ‘Silk Road’, a site where drugs and other criminal activity could be bought and sold using the virtual currency.