The machine is the first of five to be launched across Canada. | REUTERS First ATM turns bitcoins into cash

Bitcoin users lined up at the world’s first publicly accessible bitcoin ATM on Tuesday to trade their digital currency for cold hard cash.

The machine, located in a Vancouver coffee shop, is the first of five machines to be launched across Canada by local dealer Bitcoiniacs.


The machine identifies users by scanning their hands, then allows them to transfer funds up to $1000 per day via smartphone or digital wallet.

As Reuters reports, the machine’s debut Tuesday was a hit, with users lined up to make transactions.

Currently worth about $210 each, Bitcoins have no public founder or organization behind it. As a fully decentralized network, it relies on exchanges like the ones the ATM connects users to for representation it in legal battles and against the growing attention it’s getting from lawmakers and government agencies.

The machines allow users to trade the currency into cash, or deposit cash to purchase bitcoins as the popularity grows for the nearly anonymous currency.

Bitcoin expert Adam B. Levine says the machines can be thought of as terminals that connect to exchanges like Bitstamp and MtGox.

“When someone verifies their identity then hands over either dollars or a credit card, a corresponding amount of Bitcoin (minus a 2% fee for customers buying, 5% for customers selling) are actually purchased at current market price and transferred either to the users phone or a paper ticket,” Levine, editor-in-chief of the podcast Let’s Talk Bitcoin!, writes.

The benefit of the ATM is that if offers an instantaneous transaction, instead of taking days or weeks, Levine said.

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