Bitcoin ATM builder targets money-transfer business

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In a makeshift office - a living room crowded with desks, monitors and a beanbag chair - programmers are hacking away on computers, aiming 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 start-up’s founder, would challenge traditional money transfer services such as Western Union.