Phillipino nannies remit over $20billion yr

[101111]

Phillipino nannies remit over $20billion yr. If the nannies switch to bitcoin the savings from fees etc would be enormous, maybe over $100mill per year..

[Nicolai Larsen]

You mean an Au Pair?

[Minor Miner]

Phillipino nannies remit over $20billion yr. If the nannies switch to bitcoin the savings from fees etc would be enormous, maybe over $100mill per year..

Do you have a source for this estimate?  did you read it somewhere?

[101111]

Here's 1 article on it, I'm sure there's plenty more: http://www.cireport.ca/2012/01/money-remitted-by-nannies-makes-8-9-per-cent-of-the-philippines-growing-gdp.html

[ccl]

Actually not juz AuPair/Nannies but Overseas Filipino Workers in general (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Filipino)

"In 2012, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines, expects official remittances coursed through banks and agents to grow 5% over 2011 to US$21 billion, but official remittances are only a fraction of all remittances.[10] Remittances by unofficial, including illegal, channels are estimated by the Asian Bankers Association to be 30 to 40% higher than the official BSP figure.[10] In 2011, remittances were US$20.117 billion.[11]
This Philippines is the fourth largest recipient of official remittances after China, India, and Mexico.[10] OFW remittances represent 13.5% of the country's GDP, the largest in proportion to the domestic economy among the four countries.[12]
In 2012, approximately 80% of the remittances came from only 7 countries—United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, UAE and Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Japan.[11] These countries are widely dispersed around the globe—in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, respectively."

This is why I think Bitcoin is a very nice, fast and efficient way to send money to Phils from abroad.  Hard earned money is now free from high transaction fees from Western Union and the likes.

That why I support my kababayan Mang Sweeney in his mission: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88320.0

[cbeast]

I'm working on moving to the Philippines this Fall. I 100% agree with the OP. Not only is it ideal for OFW remittance, but also for their private loan system. It will be easier to get friends and family overseas to help repay micro-loans through Bitcoin.

[niko]

Phillipino nannies remit over $20billion yr. If the nannies switch to bitcoin the savings from fees etc would be enormous, maybe over $100mill per year..

Try thinking exactly how this would work. Foreign workers sending money to their home countries cannot switch to Bitcoin until either of the two conditions is met:

1. Bitcoins can be spent directly for goods and services in their home countries, or

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees. Note, even if this condition is met, there would be a huge imbalance in the direction of trade - coins coming into the country, not going out. To balance things out, arbitrage/fiat exchange is needed, with all the old cost we are trying to avoid here.

Option 1 is the only sustainable option in thr long term, and we are nowhere close to realizing it.

[ccl]

Speaking for myself only, I believe that Filipinos are fast in adopting new technology, ideas and are very much welcome to things that would make life easier for the hard work they do.  Though it may take sometime I am very sure that once most Filipino get to know more about Bitcoin they'd be one of the major supporters of Bitcoin.

They can exchange BTC for cash but thinking it's some form of investment too they can sell it too. The countries they can sell and pass the coins around will then be almost limitless as Filipinos are almost everywhere.  Or start accepting salaries or goods for BTC. 

[BTC Books]

Try thinking exactly how this would work. Foreign workers sending money to their home countries cannot switch to Bitcoin until either of the two conditions is met:

1. Bitcoins can be spent directly for goods and services in their home countries, or

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees. Note, even if this condition is met, there would be a huge imbalance in the direction of trade - coins coming into the country, not going out. To balance things out, arbitrage/fiat exchange is needed, with all the old cost we are trying to avoid here.

Option 1 is the only sustainable option in thr long term, and we are nowhere close to realizing it.

That may be your take on it, but it don't make it so...

Option 2 is the no-brainer, as far as I can see.  Those transfers into the Philippines are crazy expensive.  Fees for:  buying a remittance vehicle (money order, usually), transmitting it (postage + insurance, or Western Union fee), forex fee at the other end, bribes or taxes at the other end (pick one)...).

All that; versus sending bitcoin to a Philippine-enabled exchange (no fee), selling it (0.5 - 3%), and ACHing the local currency into a local bank account (the equivalent of less than a US dollar, one would hope).  I don't care how you slice it - given a Philippine-enabled exchange ('enabled' means it doesn't necessarily have to be in the Philippines), it's cake.

That's where the money is to be made, too.

If you doubt that last, take a look at the adoption cycle of Skype.  Skype was made by Mexican immigrants into the US who wanted to phone home, but couldn't afford regular phone charges.  [n.b., please note that the article you cite points out that Mexico receives more cash from these remittances than the Philippines]  And Skype - back then - was not a particularly noob-friendly piece of software:  but they figured it out because they had a good financial reason for doing so.

[Realpra]

1. Bitcoins can be spent directly for goods and services in their home countries, or

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees. Note, even if this condition is met, there would be a huge imbalance in the direction of trade - coins coming into the country, not going out. To balance things out, arbitrage/fiat exchange is needed, with all the old cost we are trying to avoid here.

Option 1 is the only sustainable option in thr long term, and we are nowhere close to realizing it.

Actually I have sent money to the Philippines and the total price for converting from fiat to BTC and back to PHP is about the same or lower than the price Western Union charges.

HOWEVER: No offense, but these over-seas-workers aren't tech savy enough to use BTC. You guys ever been to the Philippines? Organization and education is.. lacking.

[BTC Books]

HOWEVER: No offense, but these over-seas-workers aren't tech savy enough to use BTC. You guys ever been to the Philippines? Organization and education is.. lacking.

Sorry.  See my post above yours.  You're just wrong - and the history of Skype shows that conclusively.

[flix]

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees.

https://localbitcoins.com/country/PH

[Hei_]

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees.

https://localbitcoins.com/country/PH

thst nice

[BTC Books]

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees.

https://localbitcoins.com/country/PH

Some of those spreads aren't the worst I've seen on LocalBitcoin...

[ccl]

Actually I have sent money to the Philippines and the total price for converting from fiat to BTC and back to PHP is about the same or lower than the price Western Union charges.

HOWEVER: No offense, but these over-seas-workers aren't tech savy enough to use BTC. You guys ever been to the Philippines? Organization and education is.. lacking.

uhmm AFASIK even a 7 year old kid knows how to play online games nowadays, almost every household got smartphones, tablets, laptops and pc's plus there are lots of internet shops everywhere.  And to think those OFW are away and to keep the communication cheaper the first thing they invest on are mobile phones and computers. I dont really think being a tech savvy should be too much of an issue (except of course u ended up with tons of BTC in ur wallet and have to back it up).

"HOWEVER: No offense, but these over-seas-workers aren't tech savy enough to use BTC. You guys ever been to the Philippines? Organization and education is.. lacking." ----> this may be true but if I think opening a bank account is much more complex than transferring BTC.  Considering most Filipinos doesnt meet the qualifications to open a bank account (let alone having a VALID ID to start with).

[dancupid]

I've been to the Philippines a couple of times - it's the friendliest place on the planet despite all the guns (and stray dogs).
It almost seems to have been designed by God for bitcoin - wifi is everywhere, people are used to power cuts so many places have their own electricity generators, it's fragmented and decentralized due to the encroachment of the sea. Money seems to move via pawn brokers on every street corner.
It just needs an exchange to connect to these pawn brokers.

[BTC Books]

I've been to the Philippines a couple of times - it's the friendliest place on the planet despite all the guns (and stray dogs).
It almost seems to have been designed by God for bitcoin - wifi is everywhere, people are used to power cuts so many places have their own electricity generators, it's fragmented and decentralized due to the encroachment of the sea. Money seems to move via pawn brokers on every street corner.
It just needs an exchange to connect to these pawn brokers.

Yeah, I've been there too, although not for quite awhile.  Doesn't sound like it's changed much, except for the internet access.

Mexico and the Philippines are bitcoin's money tree right now, I think.  If I were younger and without ties I'd be down there hustling up some kind of exchange connection, or maybe hooking up the local currency to Bridgewalker.  Something.  There's a metric crapton of cash waiting for someone...

[ccl]

I won't be surprised if Manny Pacquiao is using BTC too 

[justusranvier]

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees. Note, even if this condition is met, there would be a huge imbalance in the direction of trade - coins coming into the country, not going out. To balance things out, arbitrage/fiat exchange is needed, with all the old cost we are trying to avoid here.

That's not necessarily the only option. To balance the currency flow all you need are people in the Philippines who want to buy BTC with local currency in order to import foreign good. Electronics, perhaps, from Bitcoinstore.

[cyberpinoy]

Phillipino nannies remit over $20billion yr. If the nannies switch to bitcoin the savings from fees etc would be enormous, maybe over $100mill per year..

Try thinking exactly how this would work. Foreign workers sending money to their home countries cannot switch to Bitcoin until either of the two conditions is met:

1. Bitcoins can be spent directly for goods and services in their home countries, or

2. Bitcoins can be exchanged to the local currency at the cost lower than existing fiat-transfer fees. Note, even if this condition is met, there would be a huge imbalance in the direction of trade - coins coming into the country, not going out. To balance things out, arbitrage/fiat exchange is needed, with all the old cost we are trying to avoid here.

Option 1 is the only sustainable option in thr long term, and we are nowhere close to realizing it.

Option one s not needed at all. First its a world wide network not a country by country network therefore coins going in and out of a certain  country actually have no effect on diection of trade. in addition option 1 was not the original reason bitcoin was created, option 2 was. And we already have ways to change our bitcoins into the peso its called localbitcoins I do it every week and yes it is cheaper than western union or anywhere else, because it eliminates the sending fees the pick up fees and the exchange fees.