Bitcoin debit card to bring virtual currency to back pocket

The first eftpos cards linked to bitcoin accounts will tried over the next couple of weeks.

Bitcoin, the digital currency, is creeping from our computers into people's back pockets.

A Melbourne company unveiled on Thursday the country's first bitcoin debit card, it says allow users to spend the digital currency at eftpos terminals.

A trial of the cards will be done with about 100 people who already have bitcoin accounts over the next couple of weeks, before being made available generally.

Users can pre-load the card with bitcoin, which is converted to Australian dollars.

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The company will exchange bitcoin at a rate based on the day's global aggregate. On Thursday, it was worth about $500.

The currency was invented in 2009 but is still viewed by many as the preserve of technologists and the digital elite.

Reports of black market activities and hacking attacks, including one that fatally wounded the world's biggest exchange, Mt Gox, this year, have also dented bitcoin's reputation.

But Australian entrepreneurs are determined to bring it into the mainstream.

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Bitcoin debit card to bring virtual currency to back pocket