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Topic: Bitcoin as a form of P2P traveler's cheque? (Read 812 times)

legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1000
August 11, 2015, 05:01:26 PM
#4
I haven't seen this idea posted before so here it goes: Considering the many shortcomings of  moving a lot of cash between places far apart in two countries(theft, bad excahnge rate at local bureau de change, etc) and that credit card is not acceptable at every shop in every country, traveler's cheque would still be useful sometimes, however, companies like AMEX won't setup branches in every city of the world, and Paypal is not allowed by financial regulators of certain countries(like China)/So if a person  A wants to travel to certain city where all the above-mentioned options are not practical, here is what he/she could do:


1.Arranging an agreement with a person B living in the destination city, who will pay person A an amount of fiat currency of the destination country upon receiving a certain amount of BTCs.

2.Person A travels to the said city.

3.Person A finishes the transaction with person B face-to-face using their computer to minimize the risk of a scam, and at the current exchange rate.

Your opinions/suggestions?

As far as buying use a exchange you get a better rate on a regular exchange compared to lets say localbitcoins.   Also much safer using good exchange vs meeting someone.

I would not describe BTC as a travelers check at all.  If you lose your travelers check you can call and cancel it.   It's a little more like a credit card then BTC  in my mind.  Btc has more of a investment side then travelers checks aswell.
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1352
I haven't seen this idea posted before so here it goes: Considering the many shortcomings of  moving a lot of cash between places far apart in two countries(theft, bad excahnge rate at local bureau de change, etc) and that credit card is not acceptable at every shop in every country, traveler's cheque would still be useful sometimes, however, companies like AMEX won't setup branches in every city of the world, and Paypal is not allowed by financial regulators of certain countries(like China)/So if a person  A wants to travel to certain city where all the above-mentioned options are not practical, here is what he/she could do:


1.Arranging an agreement with a person B living in the destination city, who will pay person A an amount of fiat currency of the destination country upon receiving a certain amount of BTCs.

2.Person A travels to the said city.

3.Person A finishes the transaction with person B face-to-face using their computer to minimize the risk of a scam, and at the current exchange rate.

Your opinions/suggestions?

Same as what localbitcoins accomplishes, however this one doesn't have an intermediary service to accommodate such orders, only person to person. I don't know how would that be viable and safe, given that number 3 is pretty scary if you're in a new city and dealing money with a stranger.
newbie
Activity: 1
Merit: 0
any advance on this topic? I've been searching on the web for someone to come and tackle this issue but it seems like everyone is just pointing out the problem but no one coming up with any great solution. In fact most of the people who write about this end up talking about the (im)possibility to use bitcoin abroad for everyday stuff, when actually what they should be talking about is the possibility to use bitcoin as an exchange currency.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
I haven't seen this idea posted before so here it goes: Considering the many shortcomings of  moving a lot of cash between places far apart in two countries(theft, bad excahnge rate at local bureau de change, etc) and that credit card is not acceptable at every shop in every country, traveler's cheque would still be useful sometimes, however, companies like AMEX won't setup branches in every city of the world, and Paypal is not allowed by financial regulators of certain countries(like China)/So if a person  A wants to travel to certain city where all the above-mentioned options are not practical, here is what he/she could do:


1.Arranging an agreement with a person B living in the destination city, who will pay person A an amount of fiat currency of the destination country upon receiving a certain amount of BTCs.

2.Person A travels to the said city.

3.Person A finishes the transaction with person B face-to-face using their computer to minimize the risk of a scam, and at the current exchange rate.

Your opinions/suggestions?
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