Topic: AMA (Ask Me Anything): The current state of Bitcoin in the Philippines 🇵🇭 (Read 2141 times)

There was an e-peso bill made by some Senator ... I don't know what happened to that. Also, the boxing champion Manny Pacquiao set up his own token or coin, I'm not too sure of the finer details of that. Should be on the news somewhere.

As I can see,now a days we observe the spreading of the bitcoin currency but not only the bitcoin, also the other currency that also known. As far as i know, our current senator, Manny Pacquiao is releasing his own coins tokens. But i don't think it works here in the Philippines. Also many Filipinos are still using the e wallet such as Coins and other wallet that was introduced to us.Long time ago, bitcoin has been on Philippine news. It said that it is applicable to used like this kind of cryptocurrency.

In fairness, the Government is just neutral in regards to crypto. What I hate is people using crypto as a mean to scam other people by using the word bitcoin investment as their scheme. This makes a bad impression to people who is not really familiar to bitcoin.

As requested by Jet Cash:


I'm a dude currently residing somewhere in the Philippines. This topic is for people who are genuinely curious on how bitcoin(or cryptocurrencies in general) is doing here in the Philippines.

Feel free to ask serious questions related to the current state of Bitcoin in the Philippines and I'll try my best to answer them as soon as possible.

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Public perception

Bitcoin is decently known here in the Philippines, especially for the teenager-young adult crowd. Unfortunately though, bitcoin is just mostly a investment and a sort of "mirage" that scammers and the uneducated people use to spread their ponzi scheme referral links. Even in the information technology crowd, a huge majority still think that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are just investments(even if they most definitely have the capabilities into understanding what bitcoin actually is, and what it's for), with only a very small minority that's actually passionate about bitcoin whether they're financially invested or not. So yeah, a lot of "when moon" people.

I personally know a few people in the technology industry that "invested" in XRP on it's all time high, without doing any research at all. A lot just claim that "XRP is a long hold". Pretty ironic that they're the demographic that you expect to do a lot of research; and also ironic that they actually sold at the crash even though they said that they would hold for years. LOL

Online social media groups concerning bitcoin are pretty much just breeding grounds for ponzi referral links. It's pretty sad, but it's something that's really expected due to the high percentage of poverty.

A lot of people(the older demographic) also thinks that bitcoin is a scam, simply because all they see on news television is those "bitcoin investment" ponzi schemes get caught up and raided by the police. I really don't blame them sometimes, as the media frequently word their titles quite inaccurately(or maybe on purpose, to spark more controversy).


Usability

The Philippines has Coins.ph, which is pretty much Philippine's Coinbase, but a lot better. With Coins.ph, you can pay your credit card bills, utility bills, telecom bills, government-related bills, insurance, etc, you name it! With that, you can also buy game credits and buy mobile load through the app. Pretty kick-ass if you ask me. Not to mention that you get a decent percentage of cashbacks(up to 10%) after every purchase.

About deposits to Coins.ph, you can deposit money to Coins.ph by simply going to a 7-Eleven store(which is pretty much almost everywhere), and using their digital kiosk. Fees aren't that bad either.

Take note though, that even though a lot of people are using Coins.ph due to the cashbacks and convenience, it doesn't necessarily mean that a lot of people use bitcoin in the Philippines. I think a significant amount of people just use Coins.ph to pay bills using the fiat wallet, instead of the bitcoin wallet.

I think there's a decent number of people who use bitcoin to send and receive bitcoin back and forth from the Philippines to whatever foreign country, but yea, a small minority.


Government Regulations

The Philippine government is just pretty much "meh" on bitcoin. As far as I know, they haven't legalized nor illegalized bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, they pretty much just let it slip. They're more focused on closing those ponzi schemes. The government is pretty much just approving left and right the opening of crypto-related businesses. I really don't think they care that much; as long as there's more taxes to collect, they're probably happy.

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P.S. Abra and Coins.ph are the leading wallet-exchanges in the Philippines; with Coins.ph being the most well known.

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EDIT: I think I should've made this top self-moderated.

There was an e-peso bill made by some Senator ... I don't know what happened to that. Also, the boxing champion Manny Pacquiao set up his own token or coin, I'm not too sure of the finer details of that. Should be on the news somewhere.

Are things better with crypto in the Philippines than in the US?

It is not only in Philippine bit virtually everywhere, poverty rate is increasing and this is showing sign of weakness of the government, it is like they really don't care again about the citizens unlike it used to be in the past, and all they just care about right now are infrastructures and how to beautify the country which make so much sense because when you beautify a country and people are dying of poverty, who would use it?

It is sad to hear that there are still people that believes Bitcoin is a scam. We are talking about a cryptocurrency that has been growing for 10 years. Bitcoin is the most valuable cryptocurrency now and it is going to a better level.

, and this is why we are having lots of them being scammed because scammers also are taking advantage of the fact they are desperate about making money to exploit them.

Lol yea. That's pretty much 98% of people in Philippine bitcoin/crypto Facebook groups in general. Majority still think that bitcoin is a moneymaking scheme than what it really is. I don't think I really can blame the people though. Poverty rate is still high, and as well as the percentage of people that aren't lling to do the hard work but instead prefer "easy money".

I'm a member too on that facebook group, as I observed on some posts of members especially those newbies they are much eager to earn easy than understanding first how bitcoin works (sad but true, but I understand them, they are still newbies).

The group from Binance Filipino has been going around the Philippines, I haven't attended any of their events yet but its a good way of introducing to the people what Bitcoin or Crytocurrency is all about. This September 21 they are going to Ilocos at Hotel Luna Vigan City. September 28 they are going to Davao at Go Hotels in Lanang. At least this group is not focused in the National Capital Region which is Metro Manila area.

Sure, but the demographic of filipinos that actually know what bitcoin is and is promoting bitcoin in a non-scammy way is very very small. I'd argue that the decently knowledgeable people is even lower than 5% of the bitcoin "enthusiasts" in the Philippines.

Most of the people have known bitcoin as a scam because they fully believed on what social media has been saying.

But for some Filipinos who know exactly what bitcoin is, they tend to promote bitcoin in a special way like posting bitcoin updates in their own facebook account.

So, how's the trading and the liquidity at Coins Pro? I never liked the fixed pricing in Coins.ph. It is hard to time the buying of BTC at an overseas exchange and sending it to Coins.ph to sell at a higher price. Thank goodness, they also accept Ethereum though.

bump! I'm bored and willing to answer questions.