Topic: Philippines adoption (Read 4536 times)

We are appealing to the Bitcoin Community for donations for the victims of ‪#‎TyphoonLuis‬ and ‪#‎TyphoonMario‬!
All donations will be given to the Philippine Red Cross and the ABS-CBN Foundation through sci.ph Thank you!

http://donate.bitmarket.ph/

https://i.imgur.com/twGH8pE.jpg

where else is this offer being advertised?

We’re stashing away PrepaidBitcoin.ph cards somewhere in Manila. Think you can find it? Watch @Satoshi_Citadel @bitmarketph and @wearebitstars on Twitter tomorrow at 10am for clues. 

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10620699_669779823099475_7720199271991627379_n.jpg?oh=b343178e09508c4ca7ba8bbb910df546&oe=549CCBB1&__gda__=1419679195_daa5e203c779b64d5b0715734c962304

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10288744_818538158168545_9190666639906885787_n.jpg?oh=b27a81f791f1b81187aa3bfb7f70ff54&oe=549CA3ED&__gda__=1418147121_baf45cdbd0aa648b5e1d71129a1ba027

Be a Rebit Affiliate just like Bitcoin Malaysia! Sign up at http://rebit.ph/affiliate and every user that signs up via your affiliate link and rebits will entitle you to a 10% share of our Rebit.ph service fee. You can also act as a point of exchange for those that want to send Bitcoin but dont have any.

I am back in Mindanao. I talk to people that I can about Bitcoin. My partner has backed out of any interest in starting a business. Foreigners are not allowed to start businesses by themselves here, so I'm changing my goals. I'm working on a lecture to offer any business, organization, or municipality for only a donation to a local charity. I will not be pushing bitcoin, but instead keeping the material about the technology itself. I think it's better if Bitcoin remains true to its grass-roots origins in developing nations.

Do you have any feedback about your venture in the Philippines?

https://i.imgur.com/Y6oamRA.jpg

Approx. Comparative rates for use of local credit/ debit cards abroad

Xapo 3%

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8336962

vs

http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=515836


more on Xapo

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2cvggs/product_review_xapo_visa_debit_card/

hsbc PH 2.5% +1% + exchange rate spread

http://www.hsbc.com.ph/1/2/personal/credit/compare

"Service Fee for Foreign Currency Transactions5 2.50% of the converted sum plus reimbursement of the assessment fee charged by Visa/MasterCard to HSBC equivalent to 1% of the converted sum"

So something new


http://www.coindesk.com/payza-launches-bitcoin-buying-consumers-190-countries/

Shrem indicated that Payza does not charge users to deposit funds into their accounts, but that a 2% charge for users who buy bitcoin via the platform applies. Buyers lock in the price of bitcoin upon purchase, however, the withdrawal process can be expected to take up to three days.

Does this mean that if I want to remit from any of the 190 countries payza is in...the cost to remit is 2% to buy btc..+ 2% to withdraw and send to a local exchange like rebit.ph or coins.ph  or coinage.ph and a further 1% ish to exchange to PHP

total 2+2+1 or 5% for remittance any country to the Philippines....

Although slightly more expensive than a direct bitcoin purchase to a wallet and remittance to local exchange this appears not to require the sender to know how to use a wallet to send it so that is a big plus for the non tech savvy...did I get that calculation correct?

Have you seen Bitoy? He's so fast, we haven't either. Learn about Bitoy, a Philippine based Ninja based in the Philippines. His mission in this lifetime is to pay your bills through Bitcoin, his mission in the next life is the same. Visit http://bills.ninja/ to learn the way of the ninja! Brought to you by sensei sci.ph

http://bills.ninja/assets/bitoy-mascot-7077d5e5ad35a7b6630a912d162407b3.png

Even though this is allegedly Chinese owned I suppose it can be classified under Philippine adoption as it is based in Cebu and would need a Filipino partner to operate.


http://pesobang.com/

http://pesobang.com/why-a-chinese-ebay-power-seller-quit-paypal-and-start-accepting-bitcoin/


The big deal is: Paypal charge us 3 to 7 percent per transaction so it should be their Job to not just protect the Buyers but also the Sellers, So in case of any unusual transactions they should review the submitted documents carefully and decide a smart decision carefully. Yes we agreed with the fees and we’re okay with it, but limiting accounts for no good and holding funds for 180 days for security purposes is a serious issue.



bitpay now zero fees for merchants

http://www.coindesk.com/bitpay-eliminates-fees-basic-merchant-processing/

Thank you for the feedback qwerty555. I have passed this along to the rest of the team and will reply to you shortly.

Congrats  +1


Great idea with massive potential and quickly brought to market BUT  there is a 10% charge on the card ( and possibly a further 3%+ from the merchants who accept compared to fiat prices to cover their conversion back to pesos??)..Whilst the novelty factor will initially drive this the added cost will surely eventually kill the "Potential golden goose"....an initial cost of 3-5% will be less prohibitive as they can still have a financial gain by spending remittances in bitcoin without conversion to peso at additional cost of 3%.

a) Is the card reloadable from a bitcoin wallet (and how?) without a further 10% charge ? If not, please consider this type of system as then the initial cost of card is more acceptable as a one time payment.

b)  Ultimately a 1% cost per card and a similar mark up for merchants accepting would be a more sustainable model..is this where you will be going?  If so then may I suggest the adjustment should come soon to avoid negative sentiment and increase the adoption rate to get the volume required.  

Customers first experience must be POSITIVE!!

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130604134550-284615-15-statistics-that-should-change-the-business-world-but-haven-t

6. 96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back – 1Financial Training services.

7. A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

Any press article will immediately note that there is almost no benefit from changing $ to bitcoin ( 1-2%) sending it to manila (free or 100 bits via quickcoin)  loading it to a prepaid card ( 10%  ouch) spending it to a merchant who may charge you 3% more than the fiat price.

I know this is brand new,,,you may wish to reconsider pricing so that the total cost is equal or lower to a western union fiat conversion and transfer at 11%.approx total..  even if this shows the profitability in that model is not projected for 12 - 24 months.

Others are aware of this lag time and are therefore capitalized to cover this. Whilst the link is a traditional non bitcoin payment/remittance system they have raised substantial funding to compete in large and increasingly competitive market of $24B / year. Bitcoin needs to play to its strengths which is it should be substantially less expensive to use for remittance AND purchasing.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/21/ayannah/

and here's a bitcoin one from yesterday 

http://www.coindesk.com/zipzap-1-1-million-expand-bitcoin-payments-network/

You have an edge being a pioneer which needs to be maintained and increased..these others will likely eventually attempt to leverage you out with financial muscle...eg  similar service at much lower rates.



  Gd luck

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Thanks LiteCoinGuy

bitstars.ph/ is a pretty nice and good idea. good work over there! 

Hello there! I'm from the Philippines and I know an exchange that provides a really great service. It's coins.ph. They offer a fast and reliable service and I've used them many times. As for the adoption of bitcoin in the Philippines, Filipinos seem to grasp the idea of using a decentralized currency slowly. Though the adoption rate might be slow at this point, there are some businesses that already integrate the bitcoin payment system like metrodeal.

That is extremely competitive ( assuming that they are not making up on the $ peso exchange rate conversion in the US)..regretfully the majority of OCW's from USA do not yet have that option or know /have time to set it up...

http://www.consumersinternational.org/media/886482/the%20remittances%20game%20of%20chance.pdf

Ironically, the typical remittance consumer would a
ppear to be in a group that is in most need of
consumer protection but is least likely to be prote
cted from abusive market practices.
Whilst price-comparison sites tend to show a range
of different MTCs and different methods of
sending money internationally, it is probable that
the ‘real choice’ facing many migrants is much
smaller. Due to the migrants low use (and in some c
ases active distrust) of banks,
27
the most popular
formal method of sending money is a cash-to-cash tr
ansfer through a money-transfer company as the
intermediary.
28
A survey of Latin America illustrated that only a
third of money-transfer recipients have
a bank account.
29
The accessibility of sending and receiving outlets,
both in terms of geography and opening hours, is
also a factor, and migrants are also less likely to
have access to the internet (or may be unwilling t
o
pay an additional charge to use a computer in an in
ternet cafe).
Thus, not surprisingly, in a 2010 survey of 1,000 r
emittance senders living in the US, 90% utilised
MTCs for cash-to-cash remittance transfers. Only 3%
used banks, 2% utilised the internet and 4%
used another means.[/i]


bottom line is that ease of sending and access to collection points for recipients is a major factor in choice of remittance method..over and above the competitive cost in many cases.

I pay 1% for coinbase and another 200 per 20k php per ATM withdrawl from my US bank. That works out to be 2% to cash out of bitcoins. I haven't done much of that yet. If I can get a good exchange rate and better deal with my PNB account, that would be great.

lol..not an option to live off bitcoins in Mindanao or even in Manila yet....it will still need to be converted to fiat thru people like the exchanges listed above. I doubt I will live to see merchants accepting bitcoins in Mindanao BUT you can already buy online and have items delivered there so that's a start

http://entrepreneursky.com/metrodeals-cashcashpinoy-starting-accept-bitcoins/