Bitcoin-related hardware and services appear at CES 2014 (pictures)

Bitcoin is a fascinating though unstable currency that has blown up this year in terms of it's value trending upwards. For skeptics, usability remains an issue...

Blockchain is currently the most popular way to pay with bitcoin via an application, though the hardcore bitcoin users would prefer something more secure...

A closer look at Blockchain's ap.

Still a concept, the bitcoin wallet would, when finished, be the most secure way to store, exchange, and pay with bitcoin.

If you lost your bitcoin wallet or it was stolen, the designer explained that your bitcoins would remain intact (as they have been recorded in the account info of every other user) and need only be retreived by you with the use of a password like code you would want to have stored securely elsewhere.

BitPay is the "atm" of Bitcoin, and there are around 1000 of these machines in use already.

You can insert cash and add bitcoin to your account, and you can pay a merchant in bitcoin if they have this in their shop.

This excited CES attendee is buying his first bitcoin... er, well, 20$ worth of Bitcoin anyway!

I couldn't help but ask if the guys running this booth were Bitcoin Millionaires since they were obviously early adopters. I got crickets. I think that's a yes.

Butterflylabs showed off it's specialized hardware for "mining" Bitcoin.

No doubt running a powerful machine could earn you some Bitcoin if you had it set up to mine all the time.