Las Vegas -- In a makeshift office - a living room crowded with desks, monitors and a beanbag chair - programmers are hacking away on computers, looking to make their mark on the multibillion-dollar financial services industry. This condo on the 19th floor of a high-rise in the heart of downtown is the headquarters of Robocoin, the maker of automated teller machines that turn bitcoins, the growing virtual currency, into hard cash. The bitcoin ATMs, in the view of the startup's founder, would challenge traditional money-transfer services such as Western Union. "I regard the financial system ... as our competitor," said John Russell, the 25-year-old founder of Robocoin. "Western Union is on our crosshairs big-time. ...
Reported by SFGate 4 hours ago.
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