News

Robocoin ATMs now also 'bank' branches

May 2, 2014

Talk about branch transformation. Robocoin is turning its kiosks into super-mini branches with Robocoin Bank.

Robocoin Bank is a bank in the same way that the Robocoin ATM is an automatic teller machine — i.e., "sort of." A Wall Street Journal blog post suggested that the bank might be described more accurately as "a custodial service."

Still, the significance is that clients become account-holders rather than the ATM being an interface for exchanging cash and bitcoins. That means customers will have no need for a private digital wallet or for the complicated business of managing and securing their private and public encryption keys.

A bank account allows the Bitcoin user to escape the 10 minute wait for verification that Bitcoin transactions require.

The bank also allows mobile transfers — provided that both parties have met KYC requirements. The sender transfers funds to a recipient's cellphone, and that person can withdraw fiat cash from a shared account via the ATM. It's a process that provides fee-free money transfers, even if neither party has a traditional bank account.