Two young entrepreneurs Zach Harvey and Matt Whitlock from New Hampshire have a desire to see Bitcoins made readily accessible through the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and have developed the first prototype of such a device called "The Bitcoin Machine". 

This ATM machine differs in that it accepts common paper currency and dispenses electronic Bitcoins into your electronic wallet. 

What differentiates this machine lies in the speed and simplicity of the technology developed inside. Whereas, typical Bitcoin transactions may take up to one hour for validation, this machine will accept currency, validate and transfer Bitcoins to your electronic wallet in only 5 seconds. 

Additionally, through the use of Apple or Android Apps, the transfer of the electronic Bitcoins can be monitored in real time on your smart phone. 

This is an additional step on the road towards Bitcoin being readily available to everyone as the alternative electronic currency of choice. 

Source Article - CNET News

The first custom ASIC miner has shipped. A company called AVALON ASIC has successfully created the world's first custom Bitcoin Mining CPU chip. As you can see from the photo above, a significant amount of chips can be installed on a custom circuit board to produce a significant concentration of Bitcoin mining power.

Before you scoff at this as just a waste of time and money, lets present some facts. 


At the current market rate of $21.90 / Bitcoin, this hardware generates a whopping $102,000.00 USD of pure cash flow. See spreadsheet below.

Yes, you read that right, $102k. This all comes from an investment of $1299.00 and a lot of courage to invest in an unproven technology. 

Bitcoin mining has now began a third phase of hardware adoption: namely custom hardware.
As a result manufacturers are scrambling to be the first to market with this custom hardware. 

The guys at Coding in My Sleep managed to track Bitcoin down at the CES 2013 show and interview Josh from Butterflylabs (one of the custom hardware manufacturers). In the brief interview, provided below, Josh describes Butterflylabs efforts to bring this custom ASIC hardware to market.

Coding in My Sleep Link