Philippines Startups Aim To Fulfil Bitcoin’S Remittance Promise

[earthdome]

Bitcoin is a lower cost solution to international remittance to the Philippines. Bitcoin is a decentralized peer to peer cryptographically secure crypto currency used on the internet. There is a bit of a learning curve but a big payoff in dramatically reduced fees.

 

Here is the article: http://www.coindesk.com/philippines-startups-fulfil-bitcoins-remittance-promise/

 

What is bitcoin: https://www.weusecoins.com/en/

[robert k]

I am somewhat leery of bitcoin. As I understand it, someone invented it and it was virtually worthless, created millions out of thin air when people assigned it a value. There are entities like Silk Road who deal in bitcoin for drugs, poison and I vaguely recall hiring terrorists. The US government has seized Millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin from illegal enterprises. I recall the story of a British man who claims to have thrown out an old hard drive that contained millions in bitcoin. I don't own any media I consider secure enough against failure that I would want to risk thousands of dollars on it.

 

I just looked and I can send $2,999 from my bank account online for free via Western Union and they make about 3% off the currency conversion to piso. If sent by debit or credit card they charge an additional $9. I plan to just open a bank account and just deposit checks. If the bank charges less than 3% in exchange rate, I would probably just change dollars to piso right there. $3-$9 a month is not going to be a problem.

 

I just looked and the rate of exchange is slowly getting poorer from my perspective, a few days ago it was 43.6 to $1 and now it's 43.44 to $1. Missed out on the 45 piso to $1 but such is life. :tiphat:

Edited July 9, 2014 by robert k

[earthdome]

I am somewhat leery of bitcoin. As I understand it, someone invented it and it was virtually worthless, created millions out of thin air when people assigned it a value.

 

Bitcoin is based on open source software. There is no one person or business which controls it. It is a decentralized peer to peer technology which anyone can use or participate in, say like bittorrent. It is both a currency and a payment network. Some equate it to digital cash. Its value, like the value of anything is based on exchanges in the market place. In the 5 years since its creation its value has risen from $0 to $620 USD per bitcoin.

 

Bitcoin is the opposite of the USD. The USD has gone from something of value to becoming more and more worthless due to federal reserve inflationary monetary policies, losing over 95% of its value in the last century. Bitcoin has gone from being an interesting new software technology worth nothing to being valued at over $600USD and has a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins which it can not be inflated past.

 

Internet technology venture capitalists (VC's) are investing millions of USD in bitcoin related business startups.

 

Like cash it can be used for anything. Its use for illegal activities is a very small percentage of its transaction volume. There are a growing number of businesses accepting bitcoin including some major retailers like OverStock.com, NewEgg.com and Expedia.com.

 

Like with anything of value you need to ensure it is secure and safe. There are very safe and secure methods of storing your bitcoin wallet, even outside of any electronic device. Your wallet, or bitcoin, is just a long string of letters and numbers. 

 

All that said, I also deposit checks into my Philippines bank account and don't need this for transferring money.

 

For most OFW they pay significant fees to send money home. I find it interesting that bitcoin is now becoming an option for OFW remittance home.

[robert k]

Maybe one should search Bitcoin crash, or the fact that bitcoin can crash on a rumor that China has banned it.

 

There is also much talk of speculating in bitcoin and as we all know speculating is good, right? Nobody ever takes profit and causes a market crash.

 

I don't like the banks any more than anyone else does but you know what the bank is going to cost you. Governments do not like bitcoin, I would not want to be holding any of it when one decides to do something about it. I am just conservative that way. :tiphat:

[Kinilaw]

If the govt doesn't ban this, this could be huge. $23 Billion was sent to the Phils last year. Figure an average conservative transfer of $400 makes 57.5 million transfers. Western Union charges $5 and the agent in the Phils charges as well. I think around $3 given the doc fee and profit from the exchange rate so figure $8 per transaction times 57.5 million transfers and we are talking about an industry that makes $460 MILLION annually for doing absolutely nothing except hitting a few strokes on a keyboard.

 

I think there is a misconception on bitcoins. They were not created to invest in or hold. They were created to be a one off disposable way to make internet transfers to avoid fee's from agents such as paypal and western union.

 

In this scenario you would buy bitcoins, send bitcoins, recepient changes bitcoin back to their currency. The bitcoin is only used to transfer the funds. Ideally your funds would only be in bitcoin for a few hours.

 

Given how much agents such as M Lhuillier stand to lose if this comes to pass I would venture the govt passes legislation to outlaw it. Which would be unfortunate since this is a good example of the financial industries drag on the global economy.

[earthdome]

Maybe one should search Bitcoin crash, or the fact that bitcoin can crash on a rumor that China has banned it.

 

There is also much talk of speculating in bitcoin and as we all know speculating is good, right? Nobody ever takes profit and causes a market crash.

 

I don't like the banks any more than anyone else does but you know what the bank is going to cost you. Governments do not like bitcoin, I would not want to be holding any of it when one decides to do something about it. I am just conservative that way. :tiphat:

 

I said nothing about investing in bitcoin. I would never recommend that you or anyone else invest their nest egg in bitcoin.

 

If you have some extra cash and like to speculate, then you might do a small buy and hold.

[earthdome]

If the govt doesn't ban this, this could be huge. $23 Billion was sent to the Phils last year. Figure an average conservative transfer of $400 makes 57.5 million transfers. Western Union charges $5 and the agent in the Phils charges as well. I think around $3 given the doc fee and profit from the exchange rate so figure $8 per transaction times 57.5 million transfers and we are talking about an industry that makes $460 MILLION annually for doing absolutely nothing except hitting a few strokes on a keyboard.

 

I think there is a misconception on bitcoins. They were not created to invest in or hold. They were created to be a one off disposable way to make internet transfers to avoid fee's from agents such as paypal and western union.

 

In this scenario you would buy bitcoins, send bitcoins, recepient changes bitcoin back to their currency. The bitcoin is only used to transfer the funds. Ideally your funds would only be in bitcoin for a few hours.

 

Given how much agents such as M Lhuillier stand to lose if this comes to pass I would venture the govt passes legislation to outlaw it. Which would be unfortunate since this is a good example of the financial industries drag on the global economy.

 

That is the big value proposition of bitcoin. It is a very low cost, almost no cost method of transferring value internationally.

 

Governments can not ban bitcoin itself. Just like they can't ban or shutdown bittorrents. At most they can try to shutdown the onramps and offramps, the ways you can change your local currency into and out of bitcoin.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Are you sure it is not just a fad that will leave people with less money in their pockets eventually?  I have to admit I have been burnt on similar schemes so have no faith.  Years ago it seemed a great idea to bring my money here via EGold.  You buy gold on line then sell the gold online in your target country or have the real gold delivered there.  Did not work, they were shut down, money is gone.  Hope you have better luck.

[earthdome]

Are you sure it is not just a fad that will leave people with less money in their pockets eventually?  I have to admit I have been burnt on similar schemes so have no faith.  Years ago it seemed a great idea to bring my money here via EGold.  You buy gold on line then sell the gold online in your target country or have the real gold delivered there.  Did not work, they were shut down, money is gone.  Hope you have better luck.

 

Sorry to hear you lost money using eGold.

 

eGold was easy for the government to shutdown since it was the service of a single business. You had to trust eGold to keep your value safe and secure for the future.

 

There is no single person, business or corporation that controls bitcoin or which holds your bitcoin. With bitcoin you can hold them yourself and are not exposed to the risk that you will lose them from a failure or shutdown of some other business. With the exception of the short time period you are conducting a transaction with some business.

 

The price of bitcoin is very volatile and it has had a bumpy ride in its first 5 years. Every time something negative happens reporters decry the end of bitcoin. The price may dip for a few days, but it just comes back stronger. That is because the good news, the adoption of bitcoin, outpaces any short term problems or bad news.

[robert k]

Earthdome, I never suggested that you were recommending anyone invest in bitcoin, I said others were speculating with it.