'World's first' Bitcoin shop opens in Hong Kong Friday Feb 28,2014

 

A shop selling the virtual Bitcoin currency opened in Hong Kong on Friday Feb 28,2014 as fresh concerns grew in Asia over the currency's viability and security.

 

Touting itself as the world's "first" physical Bitcoin retail store, Hong Kong-based exchange ANXBTC said it could help raise the popularity of the crypto-currency.

It came on the day that Japanese Bitcoin exchange MtGox was forced to file for bankruptcy protection, saying it had lost nearly half a billion dollars' worth of the digital currency in a possible theft.

 

An employee of a bitcoin exchange company displays bitcoin vouchers, which are worth around $1.15, in Hong Kong on February 11, 2014. About 50,000 such vouchers were distributed as “lai see” or red packets during the Lunar New Year in the territory to promote the use of bitcoin

 

 

 

 Note

Bitcoins, the virtual currency of the Internet invented in 2008 by an anonymous computer scientist known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto

 

Three young entrepreneurs opened an automated teller Tuesday Oct 29,2013 in Vancouver, calling it the world's first ATM able to exchange bitcoins for any official currency

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The machine, delivered to Vancouver by Robocoin, an American manufacturer, stands against a wall of a popular coffee shop, and resembles an ordinary cash ATM. However, instead of cash transactions it swaps Canadian dollars for bitcoins

Late last year, the People's Bank of China (PBoC), the nation's central bank, ordered financial institutions not to provide Bitcoin-related services and products while cautioning against its potential use in money-laundering.

Vietnam has also banned its banks from handling Bitcoins, saying the virtual currency is not legal tender in the communist nation.

Japan's finance minister said earlier on Friday he had always thought Bitcoin was suspect and that the country might take action following the MtGox debacle.