Western Union is getting destroyed by Bitcoin in Switzerland

[DRaGoN RaNTaRo]

I've seen this happen to most countries in Asia well. After how well the gains have been, the outcome to prosperity in second / third world countries is amazing.

There are people living off BTC by holding faucet money. Don't doubt the importance of it's future either. Just like Satoshi expected, each and every country on this planet is opened up to the future of worldwide transactions while making surprising returns.

What is people living off faucet money have to do with western union getting destroyed in Switzerland. How come one live off by claiming faucets and let me ask you how much time you will be wasting to get some real money.It is a option if you can automate things up other than that it is a complete waste.
Switzerland is following the technological changes and accepting it and Western Union have to come up with some crazy ideas or they can incorporate bitcoin into their business model.

[Priam]

That is marvelous that they sell Bitcoin for cash ! The inverse transaction would be even more useful in my case. Do you know something about it ? About Western Union since I do not even know what kind of services they offer, I can not say whether they will survive or not to Bitcoin.

[President79]

Here's the thing feared by financial institutions such as banks, presence of bitcoin will certainly make financial services, and of course there will be a rejection of many of the parties that will keep campaigning to reject the bitcoin. For us as users of the bitcoin, surely this can we expect.

[ethereumhunter]

i think western union make new innovation with bitcoin and they don't have to be destroyed, as long as western union can give their best service to their members and make integrate with bitcoin, then people will know how to buy bitcoin with western union and of course this is a good news for bitcoin users itself. i am sure that in future, other payment gateway like paypal, perfect money, payza and others will do the same like western union and they can see the advantage of bitcoin.

[Vaskiy]

Switzerland is getting popularity as one among the financial centre for digital currency development. Bitcoin has gained popularity long back and now with the introduction of Swisscoin it has got more acceptance within the country for reduced fee and avoiding dependence on banks and financial service providers like western union.

[Sundark]

Here's the thing feared by financial institutions such as banks, presence of bitcoin will certainly make financial services, and of course there will be a rejection of many of the parties that will keep campaigning to reject the bitcoin. For us as users of the bitcoin, surely this can we expect.

Contrary to popular belief, Swiss banks are not against bitcoin at all, they want to embrace it and offer bitcoin banking services, whatever that mean.
Local banks shouldn't be worried, but global companies offering only remittance services like Western Union, MoneyGram and Ria are right to be afraid of BTC.

 

[Mometaskers]

Every electronic ticket machine in Switzerland sells XBT, and accepts CHF and EUR cash as payment. Apparently people have been using it for remittance purposes instead of Western Union, and WU decided to try to do something about it:

Ummm..

The issue is not changing your CHF into bitcoin. It is the person on the other side having to change their bitcoin into their local currency.

Are there bitcoin ATMs in South Africa, Philippenes or Brazil? If there are not, it doesn't work for remittances.

You might not need ATMs for the receiving person to get their money. I believe we have 2 here in the Philippines but I don't even now where they are but we're doing just fine. It would really depend on what options are available in that country. One local bank here allows cashing-out in their traditional atms. You can also cash out in almost any bank here too, as well as pawnshops.

Here's the thing feared by financial institutions such as banks, presence of bitcoin will certainly make financial services, and of course there will be a rejection of many of the parties that will keep campaigning to reject the bitcoin. For us as users of the bitcoin, surely this can we expect.

Contrary to popular belief, Swiss banks are not against bitcoin at all, they want to embrace it and offer bitcoin banking services, whatever that mean.
Local banks shouldn't be worried, but global companies offering only remittance services like Western Union, MoneyGram and Ria are right to be afraid of BTC.

 

True, banks will always be useful even if everyone start doing most of their transactions in bitcoin. There are still need for loans and traditional banking will still be in business.

[687_2]

Are there bitcoin ATMs in South Africa, Philippenes or Brazil? If there are not, it doesn't work for remittances.

Yes, someone has even gone to the trouble of listing them in English on coinatmradar.com The Philippines has an especially strong ecosystem, it includes rebit.ph and coins.ph

But in most cases people do not visit a machines to receive remittance, they redeem the note/XBT with another person in the village/town.

[South Park]

Every electronic ticket machine in Switzerland sells XBT, and accepts CHF and EUR cash as payment. Apparently people have been using it for remittance purposes instead of Western Union, and WU decided to try to do something about it:

A perfect reason to walk over to the machine and buy Bitcoin 

Am I the only one who don't like buying bitcoin in public places or in these places where are lots of camera which does not give privacy to the amount (I mean only for privacy) but if I don't care for privacy then it's ok, a good place to purchase bitcoin and from the picture provided seems the fees are not high as I thought.

Well, we cannot really expect privacy in a public space, as you have said there are cameras and other people, but unless you can earn your crypto online, there are not many options to get bitcoin privatelly and for no else but you to know about the transaction.

[calkob]

Western union is dead it just does not know it yet, its walking dead...... 

[tabas]

That news is very bad one for the Western Union for sure they are going to do anything just to attract their customers and win them back. But we can't blame bitcoin for it as we know that it is more convenient than using WU's service that needs a beautiful teller. Unlike with bitcoin you can just simply send it with your own with cheaper fees or else WU will just simply adopt BTC.

[aardvark15]

I always thought that a business like Western Union could use Bitcoin as a way to send money even if the customer didn't know they were using it behind the scenes. It's a good way to use the technology without people having to buy Bitcoins.

[Kakmakr]

Remittance can only work, when people can send money from one destination to another at the same fee. The Swizz WU branch might have zero fees, but what about the person on the other side? How much is he paying on the other end, to receive that money?

WU/MoneyGram still have the advantage that they have on-ramp and off-ramp services globally for Fiat conversion, and this advantage is gradually eroded by the ease of use and user-friendly apps that are being developed to transfer Bitcoin globally. ^smile^

[Pettuh4]

Here's the thing feared by financial institutions such as banks, presence of bitcoin will certainly make financial services, and of course there will be a rejection of many of the parties that will keep campaigning to reject the bitcoin. For us as users of the bitcoin, surely this can we expect.

It definitely ought to have started with Switzerland because of their banking and secret prowess and I have no doubt the financial institutions are shivering to the spine by this news. Western union ought to be innovative enough and be more flexible else they will be destroyed.

[687_2]

I always thought that a business like Western Union could use Bitcoin as a way to send money even if the customer didn't know they were using it behind the scenes. It's a good way to use the technology without people having to buy Bitcoins.

WU uses their own accounting system to manage back office tasks, they don't have any use for Bitcoin per se.

WU's strength, like most businesses, is the scope and "stickiness" of its customer network. It's expensive to acquire a customer in terms of both time and money. So when another network comes along that acts as a substitute, that's really something they should be concerned about.

The real question I think is: "how close is WU getting to operating costs?" They still have about $1 Billion of buffer, but it's decreasing each year....

[beerlover]

Swiss banks can use bitcoin to be honest. It would be such a brilliant idea, get peoples Money and store them in bitcoin. When needed just cash it out like this. I believe this is a great example of how to use bitcoin.
I never thought about it this way. What if they do not even needed? What if people can store their own bitcoin!!! I mean Switzerland is the last country that would want bitcoin to succeed.

[shinratensei_]

https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-companies-legally-operate-switzerland/

Yeah bitcoin is growing for good in switzerland. This will be impacting a lot for the other's country.

[687_2]

Western union is dead it just does not know it yet, its walking dead...... 

Agreed, unless their business model starts to evolve now they will probably be out of business in 5 years. Their only advantage right now is their customers' general lack of education.

[Gleb Gamow]

Every electronic ticket machine in Switzerland sells XBT, and accepts CHF and EUR cash as payment. Apparently people have been using it for remittance purposes instead of Western Union, and WU decided to try to do something about it:

A perfect reason to walk over to the machine and buy Bitcoin 

Am I the only one who don't like buying bitcoin in public places or in these places where are lots of camera which does not give privacy to the amount (I mean only for privacy) but if I don't care for privacy then it's ok, a good place to purchase bitcoin and from the picture provided seems the fees are not high as I thought.

Speaking of privacy, your post now resides in the following complex in a special file with your REAL name on it:

[shield132]

Every electronic ticket machine in Switzerland sells XBT, and accepts CHF and EUR cash as payment. Apparently people have been using it for remittance purposes instead of Western Union, and WU decided to try to do something about it:

A perfect reason to walk over to the machine and buy Bitcoin 

Am I the only one who don't like buying bitcoin in public places or in these places where are lots of camera which does not give privacy to the amount (I mean only for privacy) but if I don't care for privacy then it's ok, a good place to purchase bitcoin and from the picture provided seems the fees are not high as I thought.

oh, what happened if you buy bitcoin in area where are cameras and situation is like in bank? What happened if you are using for legal things? Nothing..
Maybe it will destroy western union in switzerland but not huge damage for them. It has positive side, maybe they will try to add bitcoin worldwide transfer and that won't be bad news.