Robocoin to unveil first US-based Bitcoin ATM

ATM bitcoin company Robocoin is set to unveil the first US-based Bitcoin ATM at a tavern in Austin, Texas.

The ATM, placed prominently in the Austin tavern, would be much like any other ATM people use.

Users walk up, put in some money, and pull out bitcoin. Bitcoin owners would be able to sell the currency through the machine and users would receive a receipt and an amount of BTC would be credited to their virtual wallet.

The company already had ATMs in Vancouver and had shipped them to Asia, where they had been outlawed for a while.

The company will turn on their ATM today 20 February at 2 pm.

TechCrunch quoted founder Jordan Kelley as saying Robocoin would be everywhere.

He added, the company had just arrived in Texas and had already shipped to Seattle, Washington and Alberta, Canada.

He said Austin's Robocoin was going to a really cool location downtown at the tavern the HandleBar. He added the company had a bunch more shipping to amazing locations in Canada.

He said, the company was still moving forward with Hong Kong, but it had underestimated how long the international hardware certification process would take.

Meanwhile, Bitcoins are making news again in Las Vegas.

Just weeks following two local businesses announcing they were accepting Bitcoins as payment, another local business was hoping to help people use their Bitcoins.

Las Vegas-based Robocoin plans to roll out the machines in Austin and Seattle later this month. The ATMs are already in operation in Vancouver, Canada.

People can use the ATMs to swap Bitcoin for cash or deposit cash to buy  Bitcoin by transferring funds to or from a virtual wallet on smartphones.

The Bitcoin ATMs also come with scanners that can read passports and driver licenses for confirming user identities.

Bitcoins have been around since 2008, but a lot of people still do not have much knowledge about them. Their value too keeps on fluctuating all the time.

In November, one Bitcoin was worth about $1,200, but it is now worth about half of that.

Right now customers at The D and Golden Gate casinos in Las Vegas are allowed the use of Bitcoin as payment at their front desks and certain restaurants, but not for gambling.