30 October 2013 | By Jon M.Chang | abcnews.go.com
Bitcoins, now valued at over $200 a piece, were seen as the currency of the black market, back when the website Silk Road was still up and running.
But there are many people who want to cast off its shady past and make it a legitimate currency. Robocoin, a company based in Nevada, is looking to make that happen by installing the first bitcoin ATMs on Tuesday at a Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, Canada.
Because the bitcoin currency itself is distributed among all of its users, there is no centralized bitcoin bank. Instead, people buy and sell bitcoins by visiting websites, finding a user willing to sell them some bitcoins, and then directly wiring them money. But new buyers are left waiting until their money transfer is cleared, a couple of days, before they actually see the bitcoins appear in their wallet. The same applies to sellers looking to cash out, but having to wait for their payment to arrive.
Jordan Kelley, CEO of Robocoin, said that the ATMs are making those money transfers much quicker. “People need to be able to get some of their money out,” he told ABC News. “Our customers can walk up to a machine and buy and sell bitcoins for cash.”
