Daily Happenings from poetsareangels

BOSTON —Boston’s first Bitcoin ATM has been installed at South Station.

Watch Report

On Wednesday, the ATM was placed by Liberty Teller at Boston’s bustling South Station, which sees thousands of commuters a day.

Bitcoin is an open-source currency affiliated with no country or bank, which can be bought and sold anonymously.

Liberty Teller co-founder Kyle Powers said the ATM gives people the chance to learn about the currency.

“There’s a lot of interest, a lot of curiosity, so we try to provide a safe, fast and simple way to get and experience Bitcoin,” Powers said. “With this kiosk — somebody can come up to our ATM and have Bitcoin 15 seconds later, then they can go on our site and read tutorials about how exactly to use Bitcoin.”

Co-founder Chris Yim said the money can be stored in a virtual wallet and used at an increasing number of online retailers in place of cash or credit cards.

“It’s a digital currency, so what a lot of people do is they create a digital wallet or an online wallet and they import their funds. So now I have it on my phone,

now I can access it online, around the world. It’s truly digital,” Yim said.

But because the Internet currency is still in its infancy, it’s uninsured, unregulated and still vulnerable to hackers.

Bitcoin is also prone to severe price volatility. It was worth about $13 last January, peaked at more than $1,200 last year and is now trading at about $650.

The South Station and Albuquerque, N.M., ATMs are believed to be the first in the country.