Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin is ripe for mass adoption in the Philippines, but only after some major hurdles can be addressed. Some of these are:

• Most Filipinos earn about PHP300 or less for a full day's work.
• Smart phones (Android & iPhone) ownership is not that prevalent with Filipinos, however it is slowly growing as their purchase price drops. Now you can get a second-hand one for about 3 to 5 days salary.
• Internet access costs PHP5 (about 10 minutes labour) per 15 minutes.
• Free WiFi is not readily available except in very limited locations in major cities.
• Most Filipinos are un-banked (cash is king) and do not trust/respect banks.
• Very few Filipinos have access to or have a credit/debit card, although those with a bank account do normally have an ATM card linked to their account(s).
• There are very few businesses in the Philippines that accept bitcoin as payment. Those few that do are mainly in Manila.

Most Filipinos are familiar with (and many use) pera padala (money remittance) businesses within the Philippines to send money between family and friends in the Philippines. Every major town and almost every small town has at least one pera padala business. These businesses accept cash, charge a fee of about 2% to 3%, and have cash available for the receiver to collect within a few minutes. Most of these remittance amounts are usually well below PHP5000 (about USD100).

The Philippines, with a population of over 100 million, is currently served by two major local bitcoin exchange businesses; coins.ph and BuyBitcoin. Both appear to be well operated, economical, and offer normal exchange services as well as some value-added services. When exchanging bitcoin into PHP, both offer bank deposits (free) and pick-up through pera padala businesses (for fee a little above what they are charged  by the para padala business).

For the short-term future, I see the main use of bitcoin in the Philippines to be for remittances into and out of the country. Intra-country use will not develop until the Filipino can see an advantage in its use over cash.

what's the daily volume of these?

Unknown by me, as they do not publish that information on their web sites.

IMO, Localbitcoins is the biggest Bitcoin exchange (in terms of volume) there. Both coins.ph and BuyBitcoin are relatively new, and most people are unheard about their services.

Hmm... never trust these sort of small exchanges. They can crash at anytime and your coins can disappear. At least never store your coins with them.

You forgot coinage.ph and btcexchange.ph which are the real "open" exchanges. Their volumes are in the range 100~200 BTC per day.

Yes be careful with those types of exchanges they can disappear  and take your coins with them. Never hold any amount of bitcoin in those types of exchanges except when they are more trustworthy and popular.

I say forget about anything that isnt the main exchange ones unless you want to be a pioneer and try for yourself a service that may very well be a scam.

If you HAVE to then do it quick and dont leave a single satoshi on there.

Those two companies are simply on ramp/off ramps for BTC in the Philippines, you make an order, pay for it, and they send you the BTC to the adress you specify. I know Coins.ph has their own in-house webwallet, but, I mostly just use them to buy BTC from time to time.

I use coins.ph, mainly to convert my XBT to PHP, and buy PH cell (mobile) phone load when out of the country. They have a good Android app for those services.

No exchange is "to big to fail". In the Philippines, the same can be said with their banks. We are use to that.

Like all exchanges, I NEVER leave significant XBT holdings in any type of "on-line" wallet. Coins.ph even recommend that you transfer your XBT out of their wallets as soon as they are not needed there. I generally keep no more than about XBT0.01 in my coins.ph wallet (for cell load purposes). If they close up, I can afford to loose that.

Sam Kaddoura, co-founder of bitcoin exchange, BuyBitcoin.ph, said: "Those who do not want to go through the hassle of opening bank accounts or pass the requirements for credit cards will embrace bitcoins."
But in reality opening bank account is not that hard. I imagine that exchanges want from you almost the same kind of credentials as normal banks. And on top of that if Op said that internet connection is not that common among Philippine people and they also do not own smartphones it will be a long way to follow until bitcoin could be used freely.

Text messaging is cheap and common in the Philippines. I'm sure as the market grows SMS will be used more and more. I would be surprised if there isn't an sms ready Bitcoin wallet yet.

It seems Philippines still lack the necessary facility for the massive adoption of bitcoin. Internet connection may be the biggest hurdle for the process.   
 

Yeah I don't know how I'm using bitcoins here in the Philippines. I have fiber optic internet in the poor Muslim island of Mindanao. Sometimes I even use bitcoins while drinking my mocha at Starbucks or Krispy Kreme. The perception of poverty is from folks that haven't been to the Southern USA. In fact it's difficult to find a Filipino not staring at their mobile device. More filipinos are on Facebook that any other nation per capita.

As per the latest stats, more than 40% of the total population in Philippines is having access to internet and the percentage is growing rapidly. 40% is a very good number, I'd say.

No mention of Rebit for remittances from the US to PI?

https://rebit.ph/

Or the brain trust that practically owns all of these Bitcoin operating units in the Phillippines?

http://sci.ph/

Satoshi Citadel Industries pretty much runs Bitcoin in the Phillippines.  If you want to stir the hornets nest, best to contact someone from SCI with your idea, and they'll hopefully make it happen in the PI.

This is just patently wrong. The average Filipino doesn't have enough of a paper trail or ID's to even pass the AML/KYC verification requirements for the banks here (I'm in Manila), let alone the initial and maintaining capital requirements to even keept the account open.


Mobile phone penetration here is beyond 100%, with smartphone penetration at 15% and counting. Having your own internet line is relatively easy here, with the numerous prepaid options that could give unlimited access (but certain bandwidth caps do apply), but even without it, you could rent a computer here at any of the hundreds of thousands of internet cafe's that have sprung up around the archipelago starting at $0.23 USD/hr

If I recall correctly your also in the area Dabs so you know best
It's still a cool idea though
The ease of use is likely the only problem, if it was integrated where phone credits could be loaded with Bitcoin using Smart or Globe then it would reach the next level.

Having access in the internet are more on in manila. Most part of the phillipines don't know how to use computer and they not willing to learn it most of the people who don't want to learn or adapt the bitcoin are people in province. And they not believe in bitcoin and they scared to hacked or scammed

It's true that most of the businesses that accept bitcoin are only distributed along the confines of the metros. Also, slow internet connection with such a ludicrous fee (I'm paying $50 for a 3Mbps turtle) is another hurdle when it comes to using bitcoin, given that the network runs through the internet. SMS, on the other hand, is very active within the Filipinos. If only they can make a wallet SMS-ready or transactions can be made through SMS, many Filipinos would consider using bitcoins as well. Also, the main thing that I see people here would use bitcoins is mainly for remittances. I experienced one time when my uncle sent money from Canada to Manila, it took 2 days for the process to complete (which is nuts, because I need the money that same day), whereas in bitcoin, you don't need to wait for that long because transactions are made within a span of minutes from anywhere in the world. That's a +1 for me because I have relatives in other parts of the world that often send money to us.

Exchanges here on the other hand, do little promotion and advertising. Coins.ph do the same promotion in Facebook among others, and tbh, coins.ph is a nice exchange because they really deliver their customers' needs. They also have great customer service that replies instantly and helps you with your problems. Some other exchanges, I'm not familiar with, but I haven't heard a single time in which they do some sh*t over their customers.

Sound like you seem to promote coins.ph and BuyBitcoin, you should show the screen shoot of the exchange so that peoples will trust because the majority of users have not know that exchange,maybe can make it this exchange be in the know.

Thats right more on newbies haven't exchange.  If they trust and they dont know what is the value of their exchange,coins.ph abd buybitcoin.ph can outweigh the bitcoin users. And also screen shot can make idea to newbies how to exchange

How's the volume in these Phillipino exchanges? 

Its ok not so low not so high. And the common users of bitcoin are in manila and some cant adapt. So that the volume cant be high

I hope more and more bitcoin users in the Philippines and also more and more bitcoin users in worldwide

I Don't think Its gonna work in Philippines looking at the scenario at present. They can't afford to trust bitcoin as a virtual currency as their Income is not upto the mark they fear of investing in bitcoin and have a feeling that they would loose their money as many scams and frauds are on internet.

Well, you have to ask yourself, how does Kenya make the "M-pesa" work in a 3rd world country?

The 1st world countries normally dump their old and outdated phones onto the 3rd world countries at cheaper prices and technology make it obsolete in a year anyways.

The thing that people from a 1st world country do not get, is the expensive cost of internet and mobile data in these 3rd world countries.

If you get paid $100 per month in salaries, you would struggle with those expensive data charges.  :(

Its working in a rural area or civilized. It wont work in provinces.  But in adaption like i said it easy to adapt bitcoin in area of metro manila because this area are aware to internet acces and they have enough knowledge about technology

It would be cool if Pacquiao talked about Bitcoin for their citizens since he is the big voice in Philipines. Unfortunately im sure he'll never find out about it since he is far from the tech-geek circle which is basically where Bitcoin still lives, but we will get there slowly.

I think pacquiao cant do that he are so very busy. He is a Congressman, and he training for their battle of mayweather but pacquaio loss because of unanimous decision and i think the top rank betrayed him.

At present, the main places where bitcoin is used have WiFi available. There are very few places in the Philippines that provide free WiFi.

Most Filipinos have access to the internet, provided they have a suitable cell phone/tablet/computer. Without free WiFi, it becomes expensive for most Filipinos to access the internet. You are looking at about PHP5 per 15 minutes in a country where a reasonable daily salary is PHP300 (if you can find a job). I have WiFi in my home and that is costing me about PHP1,000 per month. Most Filipino businesses are not prepared to pay for internet just so they can utilise bitcoin in transactions.

Internet cafes are everywhere and charge about PHP15 per hour, however unless you are very tech savvy, internet cafes are not considered secure enough for bitcoin transactions.

When we can easily and securely send and receive bitcoin via SMS (using GSM network only), we'll have a winner for bitcoins in the Philippines (and similar countries).

You can connect free wifi in the public places here in philippines, but the only thing is its only 0.02mb its so very slow and you can't use it to upload photos or videos.

This will change. New security measures will allow Nanay to send bitcoins through a net cafe with zero chance of anyone stealing them.

I have been using coins.ph almost 5 months now and having no problems at all. Very satisfied with their service.

The only issue with coins.ph is sometimes they not giving you an email or text that they are already gave the payout.

Well coins.ph is now gaining popularity due to massive advertising with PPC networks like Google adwords, facebook ads and probably in the future, public media such as radio and television. It might not be some time soon but it will come.

I was told this week by Localbitcoins that the BTC trade volume is greater than China and on the order of Spain, but higher BTC per trade i.e. fewer trades.

I can go visit him perhaps at his gym once the latest media frenzy over his Mayweather fight (and possible but unlikely rematch) dies down a bit. Given I am into boxing and I can speak his native dialect, maybe I might gain access to workout in his gym and get noticed enough to happenstance a meeting. Given my blindness in one eye and my athleticism at my advanced age (50) and my long history in Mindanao, this might be the recipe to gain access. Also I know how to joke with and appeal to the feelings of "family" or "best friend" of Filipino culture. Several years ago I could have easily done this and I even drove by his house, but wasn't into training boxing then. I actually noticed Pacquiao back in the 1990s on local television and noted to myself that he was going to be a world champion. At that time it would have been trivially easy to meet him and I had visited General Santos at that time.

Exactly we don't need only users in philippines that should start using bitcoins but want that bitcoin should have exposure on the global level then only the purpose will serve and once it is used worldwide it can change the financial world.

I don't know much about the Phillipines, but in Indonesia you can buy bitcoin over-the-counter at 10,000 Indomaret convenience store locations.

Im using coins.ph for a month now and Im satisfied with their service. I like their instant no atm card cashout and so many cashout option. Plus a rebate in prepaid loads which I sell to all of my friends and the pay bills system. Site update now and changed all the initial address just like Xapo. They gaining more popularity now so I guess theyll rock in the future. Plus their customer care always response fast. But all of my coins are not in coins.ph. I just used it whenever I need money to cashout.

well is good to see that bitcoin is helping more people and get used by what he was made to be a easy payment system with low fee

Adoption is likely to increase quickly in places like Phillipines and third world countries where people don't have access to reliable banking services.  Any Bitcoin startups in developing nations should be taken very seriously .. the market is huge, literally in the billions

Yes the use of bitcoin in philippines can reach to the maximum level as many of them doesn't hold bank accounts so they don't have direct access to the banking systems which would increase the use of bitcoins in phillipines.

It's good to hear that their is increasing demand for Bitcoins, I just want there to be more branch locations so its easier for users to get their money instantly, have a remittance in the US/Canada then some branches in the Phillippines and instant recieving from Canada/US to awaiting people in the Phillippines, hopefully new users would likely want to trade a few coins and not need to go through an intensive verification process, in the Phillippines through exchanges and adoption grows.

I just wondered , why some of bank office personnels here in PH doesnt familiar with Bitcoins?  ???

You will find many personnels from a highly reputed organisations who will not be familiar with bitcoins and that will give you a great shock and it includes even the IT professional working with some reputed IT organisations.

well im sure those step will be folowed by others countries ,bitcoin will break the wall the countries raised against it

Yes and actually someone have to take a first step in adopting and accepting bitcoins as a currency or a mode of payment. If bitcoin is welcomed by one country then it is very much sure other neighboring countries will start following it and that would be in the benefit of bitcoin as we need more and more acceptance across the globe.

Because they want fiat money, and they doesn't care about digital money or bitcoin. And they just want their own currency and no one else.

Ahh I see. And yeah even the supervisors and managers there doesn't have an idea about BTC. I introduced it to my bank personnel friend and she found it nice. They have care just doesn't know anything about bitcoin. :D

Ahh I see. And yeah even the supervisors and managers there doesn't have an idea about BTC. I introduced it to my bank personnel friend and she found it nice. They have care just doesn't know anything about bitcoin. :D
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you can explained them what is bitcoin and how is it work, and you can also introduced this site so that they can read different thread and learned.

well bitcoin will reach more and more people daily we will see community growing we will see it on shoping or stadium well its a question of time bitcoin has all support from a huge community that will explode like facebook made it happen last years killing others social  lol

Good to see Filipinos adapting bitcoins in a good pace  :D

I joined one of the FB group of some Pinoy Bitcoiners and I surprised damn they're so many and they run for years now. This is the sign that people in PH adapt BTC now to the fact that we can pay our bills using our beloved satoshis.

It can be used from anywhere...!!!! Do everyone can use it

Not all can used it anywhere like for the country that btc is not much popular.

It could be very good for them especially if they find this forum. I think they'd find it much more profitable to do their services here than in their country itself. That's very easy money and with their hard work-esque, they'd be able to make some decent amount of cash than doing manual labor.

And I think for those country that btc is not popular , they have a organization or social media group who are involved in btc doing great efforts to make btc popular in their country. And Im sure one of them at least are in this forum.

Yes media have a great affect to influence people to used or to introduced bitcoin, this would also help government to know what is the main purpose of bitcoin.

give it time ,with time we will put bitcoin on his place and no others companies will try take it down and yes they will try to make a new crypto to achieve bitcoin status

School tuitions in some universities can be paid by bitcoin now here in Philipines. I don't know if it's already implemented a long time ago. Just saw it while browsing in my online wallet provider.

woow that was awesome i imagine that i could paid my school tutions with bitcoin to,by the way i was curious about the unevrsity which you said maybe if you find the link please share here and let us know thanks :D

Its one of the services that coins.ph have. If you have a wallet there you can see all of their awesome services. As of now only few universities are in their list but it's a big step and hoping for more universities here will adapt that.

Seems Philipines will overtake any other country in bitcoin adoption. I am really impressed by how quickly they had adopted everything so fast, and are still doing so. We need to have more countries and specially Greece to do it.

Yup i guess so if there is a country adopted bitcoin fully as a curency in their country and accepted it officially by the goverment it would be great

There are literally thousands of "branch locations" in the Philippines where receivers can get their money (fiat) "instantly". Check out the methods offered by the Filipino bitcoin exchanges. I would hazard a guess that 98% of Filipinos live within 30 minutes travel to one of these "branch locations".

As for "instant", it is not quite "instant". most Filipino bitcoin exchanges only do their banking/Pera Padala once a day on business days only, so "instant" at present can only mean within 8 business hours.

As the Filipino bitcoin exchange grows, I hope to see them arranging Pera Padala 7 days a week and multiple times a day. Then you could send bitcoin to the exchange Sunday morning and have the cash available for pick-up within a few hours the same day.

I see the current Filipino bitcoin exchanges developing in two main directions over the near term; processing overseas remittances, and providing BTC to PHP conversions for Filipino businesses.

The current biggest growth potential for the exchanges is in remittances. As this Pera Padala business development grows, I believe that these exchanges need to start shifting their focus on getting Filipino businesses to start accepting bitcoin for payment of goods and services. This is not going to be easy and will take a lot of "leg work".

Once a Filipino merchant has been convinced to accept bitcoin, he/she then needs internet access at the point-of-sale (POS) and a smartphone/tablet/PC with suitable wallet to accept/tansact the payment. I see it working this way:

1.  Business gives the customer the price converted to BTC at the current exchange buy rate.

2.  Customer logs on to WiFi at POS and sends the BTC to the merchant's wallet QR code displayed at the POS.

3.  The merchant checks the payments confirmation(s) in his wallet and, once suitable confirmation is received, passes over the goods/service paid for to the customer.

4.  At (say) the end of the day, the merchant uses his bitcoin exchange to convert the BTC takings into PHP and have that deposited into his/her bank account within 8 business hours.

One of the problems here is the confirmation time. This is mainly to prevent "double spending". It would be up to the merchant to determine what is an acceptable confirmation. For smaller transactions, just being seen by one or two peers may be sufficient confirmation, taking just a few seconds. The larger the transaction, the more confirmations would be needed, taking more time.

Another problem is the exchange rate volatility, which can go up as well as down.The bitcoin exchanges offer a few ways to eliminate this volatility.

The advantages for the merchant include:

• No credit/debit card fees/commissions.
• Less work/costs associated with handling cash.
• Good business promotion - at least initially while few merchants accept BTC.

Now, if only SM would accept BTC!

well some country is taking the advantage of bitcoin already what is needed to others follow instead block it?

Yes and i think phillipines can adopt bitcoin in 2016 because we have a new president and as filipino citizen we can introduce bitcoin to new president .

This is cool, it must have flown under the radar since I was not aware that their were Universitites in the Phillipines that accepted Bitcoins.
I can't see the list since it requires a log in but I am a bit curious what Universities are listed there.

Yeah it requires login to see the list. As of now , these are the Universities in their list :

- Ateneo De Manila
- La Salle Greenhills
- Miriam College
- San Juan University - Recoletos

All are big names. :)

Accepting bitcoins as tuition fee? oh? really? i didn't know that and also the following university are the greatest and big school in philippines and also their tuition fee are big. LOL

Yeah one of coins.ph service.

Those in the list are big names especially ADMU. Hope State Universities like PUP should adapt this system. If you're not aware PUP is a big name too with a tuition fee of only 10 million satoshis per semester. :D

well i guess all got the answer about wich country would be the first to follow bitcoin  and well it will make some turists travelling into there to be able to spend their bitcoins

The quoted universities do not accept bitcoin directly. You send your bitcoin to coins.ph, they convert it to PHP, and then coins.ph pay the university on your behalf.

Next week, when I have time, I'm going to see if I can get my local sari sari to start accepting bitcoin. Should be an interesting exercise.

Id much prefer my cousin Aquino to get a new term

Thanks for the list a few more big names like UP (UPAN) would be cool but hopefully it will grow larger over time to cover all of them even if it is just through conversions at present it might get the universites to go who is paying all these tuitions and open a door.
ICU ranking system not bad #1,#2
http://www.4icu.org/ph/


Best of luck with it, having a lot of sari sari stores taking Bitcoin would be interesting.

LOL. Of course they're not the one receiving the bitcoins directly. It will passed to a third party which is the coins.ph.

About the sari sari store? LOL. GL.

I think aquino will be no longer in that position because in social media and in different places in our country, they more likely to have a president that can depend our country in another country and he can grow the economy of the philippines and we all know that, that is duterte.

well is very good to know that a country is using bitcoin to do several things already like normal fiat

It's not as hard as it may appear. All I need to find is a sari sari with WiFi available and a smartphone or tablet. The all the sari sari then needs to do is open an account with one of the Philippines bitcoin exchanges and they are ready to accept bitcoin.

Of course, there will be a learning curve for the sari sari, but that is where I can help (gratis). I doubt that the sari sari will get much bitcoin trade, however it will certainly be a good promotional tool. It could be the first sari sari in the Philippines to accept bitcoin!

No sari sari store has wifi available. None. They won't bother because that means extra expenses. People don't stick around the store anyways. They buy their stuff and go.

The sari sari store probably sells cell phone load... The operator can have internet access, and use an app on their smart phone, to accept bitcoin. I don't really see that happening.

This is good news for Philippines People, when Bitcoin transactions get more prevailed into the middle east, that would be hassle free for Filipinos, since Saudi Arabia is currently the largest hirer of Overseas Filipino Workers, and has the largest Filipino population in the Middle East, and are the second-largest source of remittances to the Philippines.

Hahaha its not a big problem they can went or buy into a shopping online site and then they can bought want they want, and if you are thinking they just want to buy into a sari sari store they just want to buy some foods so that they not going to a market and pay a fare from jeepney or taxi, they can use fiat money because they just only bought a food with only low price.

Agree. They won't prioritize that system. For grocery stores or department stores it's possbile but for sari sari ? 100% negative.

well it will go slowly since several ways to spend bitcoin already there is a question of time to those big companies and medium and firsts small ones enter on bitcoin world

I have found a sari sari with WiFi. Fortunately this store is only about 50m from where I live. Their WiFi is not (yet) for public use. They only use it for household members.

Next step is to find the most tech savvy in their family and determine if they are interested in playing around with bitcoin.

Just a wild thought - OFW sends bitcoin direct to his/her family. A family member goes to the local sari sari and converts the bitcoin to cash at the current exchange sell rate, for say PHP10 + a 1% commission.

Because if we used our common sense, bitcoin is only for a big money, and not just only for a small money like 100 pesos and below. 101 percent not applicable for sari sari store.

Sorry im not fom piliphine
just want to know how many merchand accept bitcoin ? :)

i have schedule to visit piliphine in the next year, and i want to use bitcoin if that can accept by store

There are many merchants here that accepting BTC as payment but if you mean stores that accepting bitcoin as a live payment , as far as my knowledge is concern , there is no live store here that take live btc as payment . All are done with the website that offers btc services like coins.ph.

Yes you can used coins.ph to exchange your bitcoin into peso and no stores are accepting bitcoin, but more on company, because filipino are believing in peso even if the money in the circulation are short.

I hope load rebate in prepaid load in coins.ph will rise from 5% to 10%+ :P It will kick out my prepaid business load. :)

well the philiphines is on the best way to adopt bitcoin soo it will be accepted soon i hope in several places soo it can become a tourist tour with bitcoins payments

I am excited with it, less effort ,less credit card or atm. And you don't need to wen into atm machine to withdraw your money, you should only need is internet access, and many of public places here in philippines have a free internet that enough to send coins to the particular address.

Thank's for your information :)
Im registered coins.ph in last month, but i need bank account to withdraw in peso ;D

any simple ATM in philipine ? where i can convert my bitcoin to Peso ?  :-\

You don't need any bank account in oder to convert your bitcoin in Peso in coins.ph because there are many options to cashout your btc to peso without the use of it in coins.ph.

One of the best option is the Cardless ATM Instant Payout (24/7) EgiveCash option in cashout (sell) . All you need to do is to find a Security Bank ATM machine and you can withdraw instantly your money without the use of ATM Card and its totally free. There are many Security Bank ATM machines here in PH especially in Metro Manila.

Just read the full instructions @ coins.ph. :)

and don't forget less dumping, which mean more value for bitcoin, because if everyone will use it directly, they need to buy it first, and the only thing thqat is holding back bitcoin from rising is the dumping, but if you remove that issue, bitcoin is free to fly

to do this you need one single country that will accept bitcoin to a good level and you're done, Philippines could be one of those country

Hi, there are about 17+ Physical Merchants in the Philippines that accept Bitcoins :)

To all Filipinos:
If you haven't yet, visit and join the PH Bitcoin Org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BitcoinOrgPH/?ref=bookmarks

http://bitcoin.org.ph

From there you can directly contact the owners of SCI.PH,
who own BuyBitcoins, PrepaidBitcoin, Coinage, Bitbit

So we are dealing with a situation where mass adoption could take place and the expected crowd is around a 100million which is a lot. The only issue here is limited resources. A great growth hurdle can be achieved when work on resource accomplishment is processed. Issues like lack of internet could cause a great discomfort.

well the huge step had been taked already shops could atract several people worlwide,i would travel if i could pay in bitcoins my hotel buy food and some things .

The expected crowd isn't around 100 million since a big portion of the population does not have access to internet/gadgets to use Bitcoin.
It's great since the remittance market in the country is really big, and so the use of Bitcoin could be pretty beneficial to many workers in
the Philippines or Overseas Filipino Workers

The biggest hurdle to overcome in getting bitcoin accepted by the masses in the Philippines in an education problem. I have introduced bitcoin to over 20 Filipinos. They are interested but the first question they ask me is "how does it benefit me better than cash?".

Cash is currently king in the Philippines.

Yes, the Philippines has a population of 100 million or more, but most only deal in cash, unlike more developed countries where digital money (credit/debit cards) is much more common. Two things need to happen in the Philippines for bitcoin to take off with the general populous.

• Educate the public about the advantages of bitcoin for them - the individual.
• Get bricks-and-mortar businesses to start accepting bitcoin for payment.

Neither of these two things will be easy to achieve. The present development of bitcoin within the Philippines will be limited to remittances.

I am not of the ordinary. As a professional engineer, all of my clients are overseas. I receive about 25% of my income in bitcoin. I keep about 5% to 10% of my ready-cash reserves in bitcoin and spend most of my bitcoin overseas (SE Asia) when travelling.

well it will start to change slowly the same way with internet before just some used it then started to grow and well nowadays we cant live without it

I heard that 10% of the money comming into Philippine economy is relatives sending money home to their families. Think how simple and convinient it would be if they used bitcoin. Also 10% of Philippine economy is huge compared to current bitcoin volume. So all Philippines, if you have relative send home money to help out, please ask for BITCOINS! :)

I think it's 30-40% if Im not mistaken. There's so many OFW in Philippines. Money remittances peaks during Christmas Season. :)

Services like Coins.PH and Rebit.PH serve this purpose!
Slowly even students in the Philippine Science High School are discovering
Bitcoin as students base projects and researches on Bitcoin

They are open minded about adopting and using bitcoin as a currency and as a transaction, its a great help to them and to all students in the philippines because they can earn bitcoin from this forum and also its a great help introduce bitcoin into the students like them.

Interesting, so while others countries has a negative cashflow in import/export at christmas, then has Philipines a big positive cashflow.
I like Philipines, they work hard for their familiy, not active stupic, polite and dont make problems. I welcome their workpower :)

well there is already people sending bitcoins to family for sure soo they can convert it and get more money and will become more popular.

I'm from the Bitcoin Organization Philippines, feel free to ask me anything if you have questions regarding
the developments of Bitcoin the Philippines. Just PM me as I'm pretty busy with a lot of things

I'd like to invite all Bitcoin enthusiasts to join the founding meetup of the Ethereum community in Manila.

http://www.meetup.com/Manila-Ethereum-Meetup/events/223656096/

Because of the background of Ethereum, this will be particularly relevant to those with a background in Bitcoin. However, one of the key aspects of Ethereum is that it's more than just about crypto-currency, in fact it's a whole new approach to developing web applications (and is why it's now being referred to as "Web 3.0"). So this should also appeal to traditional front end developers, who can build applications on Ethereum using familiar technologies.

In this first meeting we'll look at:-

- What is Ethereum?
- What problems does it solve?
- Mining Ether for fun and profit.
- What is a Dapp and how do I write one?
- What is the Ethereum roadmap?
- What are the business opportunities?

We'll discuss each of these at an introductory level. In future meetups we can go into more detail, including hands-on sessions.

Thanks to the Ethereum guys in London, I have a small number of Ethereum polo shirts (mighty fine they look too), which I'll distribute. If Ethereum explodes in the way many in the industry predict, these could become tomorrow's heirlooms :-)

I'll update this meetup with the venue once I have some idea on numbers, but it will be somewhere between BGC and MOA.

Dont have any idea about Ethereum. I lived @ near BGC.

Then you should probably go there and learn about it mate.

O guys cool, I am working in Manila metropolitan area, I live near BGC too, but I am very busy with my job, so I won't have time to join the meetup there, what a pity that i can't see you guys. :D  But good luck, guys, have fun there.

Will wait for his event schedule update. I will give it a shot. Hope it will land on weekends so that I can able to attend and of course it must free to enter :D

There are also weekly meetups with the Bitcoin Organization Philippines every Wednesday in Makati!

Really? Where in Makati? I worked @ Ayala near Makati Med.

Its amazing why Philippines people's don't trust on their bank system is there is any restrictions to opening bank account in Philippines?

Not really much restrictions on opening a bank theres still the risk of the usual freezing and such. Everyone would rather decide what they do with the money honestly.

Ayala center is Makati center, I am new here, cool, you can join that easily, and I wanna join too, is there any website or link to show us? So when I am free I can visit you guys, but I think I only have vacations on Sunday, but not on Wednesday.  :(

If any bitcoiners are in CDO, I would like to arrange a meetup.

Join the Facebook Group!
Add me up and I'll add you in:
https://www.facebook.com/GMdpinoy13


I'm sure the BOP also has meetups there from time to time.
Add me on Facebook! Check it out above.

I add you now mate. Im jesriel. Show me the event schedule. Thanks.

Added you into the BoP Group.

Theres no notification.  ???

Admins are adding you in, just be patient :)
They're still probably offline.

Sorry. I thought its automatic. :) ok I will wait.

slowly i think Filipinos will accept use of BTC
but not in the province side
more likely in huge developed cities
i even tried to explain it to my friend and i ended up giving up because of the questions being raised  ;D

That's why while explaining let him/her enter the btc world itself to see to their self what it is all about. Patience is the main ingredient here.

Real Talk : Some of Pinoys especially the new to BTC work like fast method in btc earnings thats why they ignoring other legit method like this simple signature campaign. In two of the forum I regularly visit , I warned them about ponzi sites a months ago but ignores me because of passive income they are getting effortlessly. Now they are all crying and speculations came up to their mind now especially in scrypt.cc and newly closed cloudminr.

I added you sir, kindly accept me so that I can check out the group. :) I've been looking for a group that has some active members and has meetups all over the place so I can join in. Btw, if ever I joined the meetup, I will be the youngest (well at least one of them) in the group. ;)

Nice. Hoping to see more Bitcointalk Pinoy members there.  8)

That's how gullible and hard-headed people learn: the hard way. Also, patience should be present in you if you intended to teach them how to use bitcoin and what are the underlying concepts beneath it. Many of our kababayans still think that USD and PHP is still better compared to other assets they can convert their cash into and use as a form of investment. I will also give my opinion on the state of bitcoin usage in the Philippines: only the enthusiasts are willing to take the risks as of this time. Normal Filipinos still stick to USD and PHP believing that it is the better way to store their assets. Maybe in time, Filipinos will think that bitcoin could at least help them (especially the OFWs) to send, receive, and store their money without the hassle and having full control of it. Maybe, just maybe. Not sure what will happen in the future, given that Filipinos generally follow what is the trend on-going on some countries.

I'm not sure who adds me so please tell me na rin sa PM kung sino kayo haha thanks!
Good luck to all of us Filipinos with Bitcoin.

Regards,
JM Erestain

Its a great help when the OFW's used bitcoin, because they are great help to teach our kababayan's what is bitcoin is. and also its a great help to develop the usage of bitcoin, also its a big help to philippines to easily adopt bitcoin.

Yes and I think that many of the people are not having bank accounts in philippines so bitcoin would serve their purpose they can easily use it for shopping and stuff and they dont require bank account for that so it can create an revolution in philippines and I believe the government should make it legal.

It's legal here in PH .Plus even without bitcoin people here can do shopping without bankaccount. The benefits for PH people here is we have another option plus the bitcoin price depends on USD exchange and not on BTC to PHP exchange. It's an advantage somehow.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know, if you need any help, have any news tips, or need a press release done,
feel free to contact me, I'm the owner of the NewsBTC Philippines franchise.

Regards,
JM Erestain

Remittance out of the Philippines via Bitcoin is in demand as wiring money out is expensive and subject to all sorts of government interference and investigation, but remittance to the Philippines will be hard to compete with. For example when I had an employee there under a 6mos contract I simply walked into Metrobank here in Canada and paid less than $10 to deliver cash directly to his house same day service. Localbitcoin trading was a problem because of security, there was nowhere he could go and change around $500USD worth of cash in public without getting jacked by criminals watching unless you live around Makati secure areas. 

and also its advantage is student can used bitcoin liked here some of the university here in philippines are using bitcoin, its a great help for us to pay our tuition and also our daily expenses.

woow that was awesome i think philiphines would be greatest bitcoin user in south east asian and of course i wish its gonna happen to in other country, this a good progress of the bitcoin maybe people realize how bitcoin helping their life :D

woow that was awesome i think philiphines would be greatest bitcoin user in south east asian and of course i wish its gonna happen to in other country, this a good progress of the bitcoin maybe people realize how bitcoin helping their life :D 

Hmm I don't remember any Philippine universities accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for tuition, but yes, that could probably help some students who already know about bitcoin and is already earning something out of bitcoin. About the daily expenses however seems to be far-fetched as of this moment, because there are little merchants who are willing to accept bitcoin as it is.

It has but not direct payment as bitcoin to the university. There is a merchant. COINS.PH offers this services but for now to a limited number of universities only and I think I posted this to this thread a month ago.

I have read post of a users in some threaf that some universitirs here in philippines are accepting bitcoin. And some that universities are so popular, but i can't remember what are those universities.

Only 4 universities are on the list in Coins.PH.

By the way Pinoy's out there,Bitcoin Organization of the Philippines will held a meetup this Saturday , July 18 , 11pm onwards @ Salcedo Market in Salcedo Park Makati City. According to the post in their facebook group,they will giving free btc's.I will try to attend the meeting.

Yup! I'll be going there ;)

EDIT: Whoops, nevermind. Something came up eh.
Next meetup nalang ako guys!

Really?That's nice.I will try my best to attend.My teambldg is on that day also but the schedule is 5pm.See you there then.Hope I can win free btc's there haha.

MMM Philippines is using BTC as a form of payment in their networking group
I see a lot of members already and their numbers are growing
This is a good start on how to introduce BTC to the people in the Philippines
However, MMM or Mavro Making Machine or Money Making Machine is somewhat works like ponzi

It looks like Bitcoin is really growing in the Philippines. The NewsBTC franchise there is already up with some good content in multiple languages: http://ph.newsbtc.com/

Well MMM now is growing. One of Pinoy users who also in PH local thread introduced me too MMM but Im not active there.


Yes it is really growing and developing. Growth rate of bitcoin enthusiast here are increasing I believe , but despite all of this we can't have our own sub section in this forum lol.

I'm sure you'll get your own sub forum soon enough.

The same goes with India too. Many Indians do not have a bank account and it requires a great level of paper work. Where they need to provide various kinds of documents to open a bank account. And getting a loan from a bank is almost impossible who are paid salary in cash as they need to submit IT returns so bitcoins needs a promotion in India too.

Yes thats right no need more effort, just sell your coins and don't need any paper to sign or wait for a few days before you can get your money, and its so very easy to get a coins, like joining in signature campaign and its a great help for a student who will have money and also a knowledge.

Yes signature campaign is best at present to earn bitcoins and as many youngsters are also associated with bitcoins it would be great help for them to get the knowledge of bitcoins and other advanced technologies and surely best way to earn pocket money  ;)

campaigns enable earn some bitcoins but there's always the risk of not being paid , it could happen today it is more difficult and only harms but , and a good way to earn extra without much effort just a little dedication necessary by day, but I believe philiphines va become the first country to adopt bitcoins for everything.

yes I agree that signature campaigns is the way to go
better than faucets in my opinion
no offense to those who owns faucets and use faucets to earn BTC
i started earning BTC thru faucets but it takes a lot of time to earn a few satoshis

Faucets are a waste of time. Even if you're going to participate in few hundreds of these sites, you would still be wasting your time. Sig campaigns on the other hand are much more worth your time and effort.

I think the market share will most likely come from the expatriates who are using bitcoin services to send money back to home country. Imagine if that becomes fully utilized. I think the main barrier is still the 3rd party services being made available at oversea something like what you see having WU offices spread at every different countries.

While most services are applicable to expats who are using bitcoins to send funds to their families here in PH, I highly doubt that most market shares will come from them. Rather, I believe that it will come from those online workers as Bitcoin is now widely known and accepted as a form of payment. Most expatriates or OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) as we call them, do have little to no knowledge about bitcoin yet. But a group of bitcoin enthusiasts here in the PH are raising awareness about bitcoin.

The group MMM Community in the Philippines is providing a big contribution in Bitcoin awareness in since they are the only MLM (i think) who accepts and pays in Bitcoin. I hope other MLM companies follow and introduce Bitcoin to more people in Ph. I "heard" Metrodeal (group buying site) is also accepting Bitcoins as payment.

If Metrodeal would be implementing the addition of bitcoin as payment option, then it would be very awesome! It would be more convenient for people who uses bitcoins!

Its a great help for users of bitcoin because they can buy stuffs without exchange their coins into fiat money, and also its a great help to the economy of the philippines because it can avoid the delay of payment and also foreigners can spend their coins in philippines.

Yes it would definitely help the economy of philippines and the great benefit would be for the visitors from different countries who visits philippines and as bitcoins are accepted, they don't have to convert their currency into local currency which would save the conversion cost.

Yes also they can save the transaction fee, and this can help the adoption and usage of bitcoin in philippines, And it can affect the gdp of the country.

I just wondered who Pinoy's here attends the meetups/seminars of a one of the bitcoin group in Philippines last Saturday. Didn't able to joined them because my work's teambuilding is also in the same day. Anyone who able attend , please share some of their talked topics? :)

Ah yes. I'd like to see pictures of the official meet ups as well. Maybe put it on my blog to encourage other Filipinos to attend and cooperate.

And also they can lead or they can give some strategies,method on how they grow their coin, by doing that they can encourage many people because nowadays people find a job and need to earn. We can say that this is the opportunity to adopt and development of bitcoin.

Hi guys! News from BOP:

YouthHack Manila is coming up on July 25 and the BOP (Bitcoin Organization Philippines)
Will be having a booth there. Come and meet us there at July 25 YH Manila

Where is the Venue of this event?
Is there an entrance fee?
Time gates will be open for this event?

thanks

Yeah , i think you should answer that questions, so that we know if we can went and where is it. Please response.

BOP is the one who held a meetups in Makati last Saturday right? More info please. Hope the venue is not that far from my place or to my workplace. Hope there some free bitcoins again for newbies hehe.

I have just finished catching up on this thread. Some interesting things have been discussed.

I do my bit to spread the word on bitcoin. When ever I am in a tech shop in Lapu Lapu or Cebu looking to by something, I always ask "Do you accept bitcoin?". Initially I would just get a black stare in response. Now some of the shops are telling me "No, not yet, but we are looking into it".

One day I will ask and get the response "Yes sir".

About 10% of Filipinos are OFW's. Their remittances back to the Philippines total some USD50 billion annually [ref. BSP], with a little under a half of that going through the official banking system. The rest comes through the likes of Western Union.

The availability of bitcoin to OFW's is dependent on where they are based and their knowledge of how to obtain bitcoin. I know a few Filipino families with OFW's helping with support. I have contacted their OFW's to suggest that they consider bitcoin for their remittances back to the family. Even with a saving of %5 or more, all said it was just to much trouble.

As a side note, I was recently in Bengbu, China on business. Bitcoin is in demand there. It was fairly easy to find someone who wanted to exchange CNY for bitcoin - and at a premium of 5% to 10% above the market rate.

Will Philippines government block bitcoin like many other countries?

no. and not will, even if the government of the philippines not supporting bitcoin still they will not ban it because bitcoin is a great help to the economy of the philippines. And they have now a discussion about the bad and good effect of bitcoin in the philippines.

Here is an example of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Singapore remitting SGD100 to the Philippines using bitcoin (XBT).

In this example, I will use:

• FYBSG exchange in Singapore (XBT1 = SGD342.99 - 0.6%)
• coins.ph exchange in the Philippines (XBT1 = PHP10,759)

As a reference, xe.com quote a mid-market rate of SGD1 = PHP32.90

Only the OFW needs internet access.

1.  OFW registers (AML/KYC) with FYBSG. This is a once-only requirement and may take a couple of business days.

2.  OFW registers (AML/KYC) with coins.ph. This is a once-only requirement and may take a couple of business days.

3.  OFW deposits SGD100 into the bank account of FYBSG and within 1 banking day purchases XBT0.2741.

4.  OFW then sends XBT0.2741 to coins.ph (less than 1 hour).

5.  OFW instructs coins.ph to send PHP2,949 (less any fee) to the recipient. If via Security Bank cardless ATM, within 1 hour 24/7 (zero fee). If via Palawan Express within 1 business day (PHP90 fee).

With a total OFW outlay of SGD100, the recipient receives PHP2,859 to PHP2,949 - depending on the delivery payment method selected with coins.ph.

The whole process can be completed the same day if the FYBSG deposit is made early morning and cardless ATM is used for payment. Otherwise, allow for the process to take up to 2 banking days.

I don't know how the above example compares to other Philippines remittance options available to OFW's in Singapore.

Well as much as I know Filipinos love to welcome new things that may come there way and if biticoin is one of those new things Im sure they'll be able to welcome it with open arms and support it.

any businesses here in the Philippines that accepts bitcoin? any inputs? insights?

what platforms/exchanges offers merchant services? (i'm thinking coins.ph)

I maybe able to help integrate BTC payments to a hotel here in my city.

a map/directory of businesses who accepts bitcoin as payments here in the Philippines would be great too.

rebit is also an exchange site operating in Philippines. I heard there's a coffee shop in Makati that accepts Bitcoins as payments
cashcashpinoy used to accept Bitcoins, but when I checked last week, pay option was removed

seen it before.. looks like coins.ph can deliver ( https://coins.ph/merchants (https://coins.ph/merchants) ) any businesses here using it?

I've used coins.ph personally to convert btc to cash and it is good...

just trying to have feedback here before trying it out  :)

Rebit? Haven't heard of it yet. I'm used to using coins.ph and I must say that their service is awesome. I might check out rebit these days. Where is that coffee shop you speak of? I want to try their service too

Converting from BTC to PhP and vise versa using coins.ph is good. I always use eGive cash and all you need is just access to Security Bank and no card needed and its instant. Just don't ask for a payout or cash out on a weekend. It's very slow.