This feature is not limited to low and middle income countries. Anyone who engages in international transactions will appreciate using bitcoin as the channel.
Absolutely, but people in countries where salaries are higher tend to:
1. use banks a lot.
2. don't really care about the remittance cost because it doesn't look so scary.
3. don't pay such high remittance costs because these countries have bank arrangements that offer more reasonable fees. This sucks because it feels like the richer pay less in fees when transacting together.
I am from a low and middle income country. 9 out of 10 people I know do not use bitcoin to avoid remittance costs. It would have been a great option but our folks and friends who are outside the country in a developed, do not mind the fees mostly because they are not as crazy about bitcoin as we who are in the LMICs are. And we, do not bother to tell them about this as we feel it is not as important despite its benefits since bitcoin is not accepted in our country.
That's disappointing mate. I hope you can cope with remittance costs easily enough. This "our folks and friends who are outside the country in a developed, do not mind the fees" felt like a punch to the stomach to me... It is actually the points (2 & 3) that I mention in my answer to un_rank above.
Yeah, sending money with bitcoin is often cheaper than other methods because the fees are lower.
but, you've got to keep in mind that there are still some fees for transferring bitcoin and converting it into the local currency of the country you're sending it to.
so, it's a better deal, but you have got to think about all the costs.
To be honest, I didn't consider exchanging the Bitcoin to the local currency after receiving it. You are right... I wish we could use Bitcoin without needing to convert it back to local currencies.
