Leading Bitcoin ATM manufacturer
Robocoin is upgrading its network of machines with bank-style features,
including the ability to send funds to phone numbers.
The Las Vegas-based company,
which launched the world's first Bitcoin ATM in Canada last October, said its
ATMs in 13 countries will allow users to buy bitcoin or get cash in 12
currencies easily.
It's billing the new Robocoin
Bank as "the fastest way to send cash worldwide."
The ATM services, which will
launch this summer, will include the ability to store, access and send bitcoins
from any ATM, or "branch," as the company is now calling them. They
can also transfer bitcoin instantly without users having to wait for
confirmation on the blockchain, the public ledger of transactions in the
cryptocurrency.
The machines will also let
customers withdraw cash from their bitcoin holdings.
In a move the company believes
will disrupt the remittance industry, users will be able to send money to
people by addressing it to a phone number instead of a Bitcoin address. If
recipients don't have Bitcoin accounts yet, the funds will wait for them at
their local machine.
For security against fraud, the ATMs will use three
ways to authenticate users: a phone number that acts as a username, a PIN and
palm-vein scans.
The manufacturer is hoping its
revamped approach, as well as use of banking terms like "deposits"
and "withdrawals," will broaden the appeal of Bitcoin beyond early
adapters.
"The new Robocoin Bank
removes the pain and the barrier to entry," Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelley
wrote in an email.
"No longer do customers have
to worry about private keys and public addresses. With the Robocoin Bank,
customers deposit into their Robocoin Account and send money between phone
numbers, not public keys, which will yield incredible network effects."
Bitcoin transfers have relied on
public-key cryptography, which uses secret codes to verify a user's ownership
of bitcoins. Private keys are matched to Bitcoin addresses, unique identifiers
that allow users to receive the digital currency.
The Robocoin Bank will enable
faster and easier transactions than before, Kelley added.
Robocoin did not immediately
respond to a request for information about
the bank's fee structure.
Japan become one of the latest
countries to receive a Robocoin ATM when importing company Raimu unveiled in
April the first of three it ordered from the U.S.
The machine is expected to be set
up in the busy Shibuya district of Tokyo this month, according to Raimu.
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