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Robocoin to Debut First Traveling Bitcoin ATM at SXSW Interactive Festival

Robocoin has revealed four ATM units will be headed to Austin, Texas, for this year's SXSW Interactive festival.

By Pete Rizzo
AccessTimeIconMar 5, 2014 at 10:46 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 11, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. UTC
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Las Vegas-based bitcoin ATM specialist RoboCoin has revealed new plans for this week's upcoming South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival, set to begin on Friday 7th March and run through 11th March.

SXSW is one of the more notable events on the annual tech calendar, having helped launched major brands such as Twitter and Foursquare.

Robocoin, which debuted the first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October to massive fanfare, has a similarly stylish rollout planned for its SXSW debut. Robocoin will launch four ATMs around the city to raise bitcoin awareness at the event.

The result, according to Robocoin growth guru Sam Glaser, is that attendees will have unprecedented access to bitcoin.

Said Glaser:

"There should be no reasonable time of day where you can't go buy and sell your bitcoins from a Robocoin."

Founded in late 2013, Robocoin is in the midst of a massive rollout of ATM units as demand for its products is escalating worldwide.

Event locations

Screen Shot 2014-03-05 at 5.48.56 PM
Screen Shot 2014-03-05 at 5.48.56 PM

Glaser indicated that Robocoin bitcoin ATMs will available at HandleBar, an "old-school," neighborhood bar in Austin; Domincan Joe, a local coffee shop; and Central Texas Gun Works, a shooting range and firearm education facility.

Perhaps most notable, however, is the Robocoin Rover, its fourth unit.

The Robocoin Rover will be housed in the back of a moving trailer for mobile access around Austin for the four-day event, providing an experience akin to a traveling food truck.

The Robocoin Rover will be operated by Coinvault, a Houston-based firm, but Glass suggested it could become an idea it encourages more operators to consider.

"We're going to test it at SXSW, and see how positive the response is. So far [Coinvault] is the only [company] we're talking to about, but I imagine if it's successful, it will take off.

At least one of the units will be moved during the day to the SXSW Trade show, where Robocoin can gain access to the festival's substantial audience. Last year, nearly 30,000 people attended the SXSW Interactive portion of the festival, attendance records show.

Stragetic goals

The event also has a strategic relevance for Robocoin, which is eager to showcase its units to the event's influential audience members.

Explained Glaser:

"I think the biggest goal is to share Robocoin with a huge collection of technology journalists and influencers, and really share the information on Robocoin compliance, because that's what we've built our company around."

Attendance records also show that SXSW could be the right event for the company to attend for this reason. Approximately 3,000 media personnel were in attendance at the event in 2013.

Image credit: Blanscape / Shutterstock.com

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