Bitcoin can now be purchased practically anywhere, from ATMs to drugstores

<p>Mike Scanlan, a former Tufts Health Plan information security specialist, discovered bitcoin in 2014. “Oh my gosh, this is the future of finance,” he concluded.</p> <p>Scanlan then attempted to purchase some.</p> <p>“It was the worst time of my life,” Scanlan recounted. “I tried for a week and a half to get bitcoin.” This convinced him that he could make a lot of money by providing a more convenient way to buy the goods.</p> <p>Scanlan is now the chief technical officer at Coinmover, a Lynn-based business that manufactures "bitcoin ATMs," which are essentially vending devices that trade digital currency. Today, his company's machines may be found at retail stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Washington state, with each selling an average of $40,000 in cryptocurrency each month. That is less than the cost of one bitcoin, which has recently fluctuated between $44,000 and $52,000. Scanlan, on the other hand, is just getting warmed up. Before the end of the year, he hopes to have 1,250 machines in 18 states.</p> <p>There is a statewide boom in more convenient ways to purchase cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin ATMs leading the way. According to the industry tracking website Coin ATM Radar, there were approximately 6,000 such machines in the United States at this time last year, but there are now over 26,000, with hundreds more being installed every week.</p> <p>And that only includes “pure” bitcoin ATMs, which sell cryptocurrency solely. Thousands of standard cash-dispensing ATMs have also been converted to accept cryptocurrency purchases. Then there's Coinstar, the company that manufactures the coin-counting machines found in many US supermarkets. Approximately 7,500 of these machines now sell bitcoin, with a total of 10,000 projected by the end of the year. Researchers at a different site, How Many Bitcoin ATMs, have added these hybrid machines to the mix, estimating that there are over 42,000 bitcoin vending machines in the United States now.</p> <p>The majority of sophisticated cryptocur