PayPal Pulls Out of Puerto Rico; Huge Opening for Bitcoin

[OmegaStarScream]

The original online payment platform, PayPal, has decided to leave the populous island of Puerto Rico next month. The country has imposed a 2 percent take on any money transmission, forcing Paypal’s hand. So what does this mean for those who need to send money from Puerto Rico?

The bitcoin alternative

Where does bitcoin fall into this? It would make a perfect substitute for Paypal, as many in the West feel it is destined to replace PayPal in years to come. Not only would it work in a faster and more secure fashion completing within 10-60 minutes instead of 1-7 days, but it would be fairly difficult for these cryptographic funds to be taxed by government. Maybe the world’s most technologically advanced nation, the United States, could actually watch every transaction, and figure out where it came from and from whom, but Puerto Rico?

In reality, taxing each bitcoin transaction would be quite a feat to accomplish for any government, regardless of where you are. Every time a government makes an economic mistake, and imposes a new tax to cover for it can force the citizens to make economic countermeasures against such impositions.

PayPal will end its service for Puerto Ricans moving money off of the island on October 30, 2015.



Full article is here : http://cointelegraph.com/news/115243/paypal-pulls-out-of-puerto-rico-huge-opening-for-bitcoin
So guys , to the moon ?

[c789]

That would be a great opportunity. However, for Bitcoin (or anything else) to be desired and used, people have to know about it first. One of the biggest hurdles to Bitcoin use/acceptance is that most people still haven't heard about BTC. Bitcoin needs marketing. Without it, people won't know what they're missing or that an alternative to PayPal even exists.

Still, this is a great opportunity for BTC and Puerto Ricans. I hope BTC gains a strong user base there and takes off. If you're part of one of the larger BTC companies, send a few reps to Puerto Rico or at least put together a few ad spots.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

I hope this can be taken advantage of but I have to express my concerns at how many Puerto Rican's are currently aware of or even using bitcoin. Is there a large bitcoin using Puerto Rican contingent? Perhaps somebody could enlighten us on the chances of this being 'a thing' or not. 

[Kprawn]

The same rules will count for Bitcoin users too... " The country has imposed a 2 percent take on any money transmission " ...that said, it will be more difficult to enforce

such a regulation on Bitcoin. Once the government there recognize that the 2 percent take on money transmission can be circumvented by Bitcoin, they will ban it's use.

I would much rather see them using it freely without constraints and levies and taxes added too it. There is very little we can do about that... but Bitcoin will still be cheaper

with the levy, than PayPal. 

[Herbert2020]

bitcoin has always been a good substitute for paypal and this is just an opportunity, the important thing is to take advantage of this situation . if businesses start realizing the advantages of bitcoin, then we can consider a mass adoption that everyone is waiting for.

[Kaneki]

we can only see whether bitcoin can successfully replace paypal in Puerto Rico without being disturbed by the policies of the government in there.

[a7mos]

If we compare between PayPal and bitcoin as a method of sending money , bit coin is better of course because it is very low fees and it is so easy to setup a wallet unlike PayPal accounts which need a lot of papers and verifications

[ArticMine]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

[poeEDgar]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

Interesting. So it is your position that merely increasing the block size limit will actually lead to adoption? "Build it and they will come" sort of thing? I think you'll have a tough time proving that claim.

[ArticMine]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

Interesting. So it is your position that merely increasing the block size limit will actually lead to adoption? "Build it and they will come" sort of thing? I think you'll have a tough time proving that claim.

No my position is to make adoption possible.

[poeEDgar]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

Interesting. So it is your position that merely increasing the block size limit will actually lead to adoption? "Build it and they will come" sort of thing? I think you'll have a tough time proving that claim.

No my position is to make adoption possible.

It seems that with adoption over the past 5-6 years, blocks are still at less than 50% capacity on average -- and that includes a considerable amount of spam that arguably does not need to occupy the blockchain. What makes adoption "not possible" in this instance?

[Mickeyb]

The same rules will count for Bitcoin users too... " The country has imposed a 2 percent take on any money transmission " ...that said, it will be more difficult to enforce

such a regulation on Bitcoin. Once the government there recognize that the 2 percent take on money transmission can be circumvented by Bitcoin, they will ban it's use.

I would much rather see them using it freely without constraints and levies and taxes added too it. There is very little we can do about that... but Bitcoin will still be cheaper

with the levy, than PayPal. 

Yes, I guess you are right about these 2%, there is big possibility that they will make Bitcoin pay 2% tax on the transactions. The only problem I see is how they would collect this tax. I mean with centralized system like Paypal it's easy, with decentralized like Bitcoin it's much harder.

I guess this is the response of the bankrupt government to save the country, to just charge everbody 2%.
On the other side, I am glad to see that they are losing at least some business, the crapy PayPal.

[Nagle]

Bitcoin for money transfer costs more than 2%. Coinbase charges 1% to buy, and 1% to sell. Then there's the bid/ask spread, and the risk of price volatility.

(And don't start with the "just stay in Bitcoins" bullshit.)

[runpaint]

Well, well, well.  

Centralized money service just decides an entire island doesn't need to use money anymore.  Hopefully nobody is screwed too badly, but that's what they get for depending on PayPal.

[ArticMine]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

Interesting. So it is your position that merely increasing the block size limit will actually lead to adoption? "Build it and they will come" sort of thing? I think you'll have a tough time proving that claim.

No my position is to make adoption possible.

It seems that with adoption over the past 5-6 years, blocks are still at less than 50% capacity on average -- and that includes a considerable amount of spam that arguably does not need to occupy the blockchain. What makes adoption "not possible" in this instance?

PayPal does 11.5 million transactions per day or appriximatly 133 transactions per second. https://www.paypal-media.com/assets/pdf/fact_sheet/PayPal_FastFacts_Q4_2014_FINAL.pdf Bitcoin maxes out at about 2 transactions per second. Please do the math.

[runpaint]

Bitcoin for money transfer costs more than 2%. Coinbase charges 1% to buy, and 1% to sell. Then there's the bid/ask spread, and the risk of price volatility.

Puerto Rico is charging 2% in addition to PayPal's 3% or more fees.

I'm trying to sell music online, and PayPal charges 2.9% to process the payment, PLUS 30 cents per transaction.  That comes out to about a third (33%) of a 99cent mp3 sale.

Oh, but Coinbase charges 1%, so I guess Puerto Ricans should just kill themselves since nothing is better than PayPal.

[unamis76]

I only have one thing to say about this: very good news.

[poeEDgar]

With a population of 3.5 million, Puerto Rico could easily generate enough transaction volume that would overwhelm Bitcoin's 1 MB max blocksize limit. This could provide an opening not for Bitcoin, but rather for an alt-coin that has adaptive blocksize limits.

Interesting. So it is your position that merely increasing the block size limit will actually lead to adoption? "Build it and they will come" sort of thing? I think you'll have a tough time proving that claim.

No my position is to make adoption possible.

It seems that with adoption over the past 5-6 years, blocks are still at less than 50% capacity on average -- and that includes a considerable amount of spam that arguably does not need to occupy the blockchain. What makes adoption "not possible" in this instance?

PayPal does 11.5 million transactions per day or appriximatly 133 transactions per second. https://www.paypal-media.com/assets/pdf/fact_sheet/PayPal_FastFacts_Q4_2014_FINAL.pdf Bitcoin maxes out at about 2 transactions per second. Please do the math.

Interesting. So, despite the fact that bitcoin has never tested its capacity limits on average (not even close), you are now supposing that it replaces Paypal on the whole -- never mind Puerto Rico's share of those transactions, or the likelihood that Puerto Rican Paypal users would actually adopt bitcoin.

[maokoto]

Perhaps a startup focused in people in puerto rico to send money through Bitcoin would be a great opportunity. Something like "Send money from Puerto Rico faster than paypal". People would be looking for paypal alternatives and keyword match would be good.

Then some will learn that they can send the bitcoins themselves.

[tiggytomb]

This is great news and opportunity for Bitcoin to fill a gap and put Puerto Rico on the Bitcoin map.