Bitcoin Forum

remo

Get a few dozen people to request it. I only know of three forum users in Thailand.

I'm in Thailand and would probably welcome it. But I don't know how much use it would get.

It would be good to start a "Bitcoin in Thailand" thread in a general forum and see how well that floats. If lots of people post and it stays active then it may be worth having a sub-Forum.

Why? I think the cost of creating a local sub-forum is very low, compared to the benefits of having a whole space for discussion in people's own country/language.

I would even go further and suggest you create in advance ready-to-use local forums for more languages. But at least, 2~3 people asking for it is sufficient, because it means they'll be able to have a public conversation about bitcoin it in their language.

Plus, Thailand is kind of the most symbolic country for Bitcoin – after all, we're using their currency, aren't we? Oh, maybe I got confused somewhere.

It looks bad to have a nearly-empty section. And it is more work, since I need to make special exceptions for language boards when I change newbie permissions.


Post it in "other" under local.

Hello. Just want to say hi to all the other Thailand bitcoiners:)

Talking about Thailand...

I was looking around for ways to more directly get Bitcoin into a Thai bank. The only way I've found (other than going into a US bank and using an ATM, which now costs me $7 per withdrawl) is via AurumXchange (https://www.aurumxchange.com/rates) to Liberty Reserve and then EntelNova (http://www.entelnova.com/indexhome.htm) into a Thai bank.

I haven't tried this myself and I wonder if anyone has gone this route or tried some similar way to do this type of transfer?

From my reading it seems from MtGox code into Liberty Reserve is about 2% fee. And then from using EntelNova LR into Thai KasinKorn bank is at an exchange rate of 29.45 (today roughly 0.5% below ATM rate).

Any experiences out there in this area?

I don't know about that but I have been using www.bahtcoin.com However now their prices is way off and I no longer use them other than buying phone credit. If you try out what you listed let me know. I also do not like using the atms.

Wow. They're wanting a 32% premium for that. Not something I'd make use of.

I followed the link for exchange rate on that page to other WebMoney stuff (http://www.webmoney-thailand.com/?page=spend-cell&from=BTC&org=HAPPY) and that looks interesting. In particular filling up my DTAC phone using BitCoin is both immediate (they say) and reasonably priced. 300 baht phone credit for 1.65 BTC works out to around $4.97/BTC. Not bad. I'm tempted to try out 50 baht to see if it works.

(That looks like a Russian run service so I have no idea how trustworthy it is...)

I have used it both for my phone and selling bitcoins. They used to have good rates. Yes it is Russian run and if/when they get back their rates they will get my business back. I only use it now for phones. It takes about 10 mins on average.

The WebMoney to Thai Post option also is pretty interesting. Thai Post is used by locals for money transfer everywhere here. It's amazing to walk into my local post office and see dozens of people waiting for their money to arrive.  The rate is $5 or 5%-2% depending on amount which is lower then some MoneyGram rates, again depending on amount. But first you have to get BTC into WebMoney... I've seen a couple offers for that on the forum but it's an unknown for me.

I'm going to try the phone refill next time instead of buying at 7-11, just because it's cool.

Just sent 20 baht to my GF's phone.
Worked OK but was a bit slow. About an hour to finally get there.
You wouldn't want to wait and do it when you ran out and urgently needed it.

in the past it has been faster for me. only about 5 mins after they confirm the bitcoins. it takes a while for the bitcoins to be confirmed at times. yeah, if you need to make a call fast its a pain, but sometimes going out in the rain to 7-11 is too.

Just sent 100 baht to my phone and it completed in about a minute after confirmations cleared.
So that's cool.