Philippine Central Bank approves licenses for 2 cryptocurrency exchanges?

[Xester]

What I read is that the central bank of the Philippines aproves or legalizing bitcoin.  So it is now legal here in the Philippines, the news or the wonderful news was send to me by my boyfriend.  After that, he told me that he will start to invest in bitcoin.  Since legalizing bitcoin here in the Philippines, for sure there were many establishments that will accept bitcoin as payment.

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[Bondho Kompeni]

I've never heard anything official from a Philippine bank, but I do not think the bank will use cryptocurrency as long as there is no official permit from the government. Of course the bank will be subject to all rules of the country to use or not.

[Babyrica0226]

I have read from ETH News that the Central Bank approves licenses for two cryptocurrency exchanges. Do you think it is true? They said the implementing rules are still to come out. Is it really true?

How will it affect the Philippine banking system?

ETH News link, https://www.ethnews.com/philippines-central-bank-approves-licenses-for-two-cryptocurrency-exchanges

Earlier the Philippine central bank had released new regulatory guidelines for bitcoin exchanges and now their central bank has given official licenses to two bitcoin exchanges.

On August 19, 2017, the Philippine Star reported that Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has granted two cryptocurrency companies licenses to operate bitcoin exchanges. At the FinTech Thought Leadership Roundtable Series presented by FINTQ, Nestor Espenilla Jr., governor of BSP, spoke about the dramatic growth of the digital currency industry and emphasized the importance of oversight.

These are locally based exchanges having international roots.

Local media had confirmed it, http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/08/19/1730418/bsp-approves-registration-2-bitcoin-exchange-operators

This is good for bitcoin adoption.

This is a great news to all Filipino's bitcoin enthusiast, this is shows that the popularity of bitcoin now is little by little spreading out nationwide in the Philipines, I hope and I wish this will continuously in progress.

[speem28]

I have read from ETH News that the Central Bank approves licenses for two cryptocurrency exchanges. Do you think it is true? They said the implementing rules are still to come out. Is it really true?

How will it affect the Philippine banking system?

I'm from the Philippines too and I must say, that I haven't heard this news too. If I were to think about how the approved two cryptocurrency exchanges will affect the banking system in the Philippines? It'is really hard to answer but I guess the Central bank will make the most out of it tho and those early adopters of bitcoin in the country will take its full advantage. This will be great for my country if this was true tho.

[South Park]

I have read from ETH News that the Central Bank approves licenses for two cryptocurrency exchanges. Do you think it is true? They said the implementing rules are still to come out. Is it really true?

How will it affect the Philippine banking system?

ETH News link, https://www.ethnews.com/philippines-central-bank-approves-licenses-for-two-cryptocurrency-exchanges

Earlier the Philippine central bank had released new regulatory guidelines for bitcoin exchanges and now their central bank has given official licenses to two bitcoin exchanges.

On August 19, 2017, the Philippine Star reported that Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has granted two cryptocurrency companies licenses to operate bitcoin exchanges. At the FinTech Thought Leadership Roundtable Series presented by FINTQ, Nestor Espenilla Jr., governor of BSP, spoke about the dramatic growth of the digital currency industry and emphasized the importance of oversight.

These are locally based exchanges having international roots.

Local media had confirmed it, http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/08/19/1730418/bsp-approves-registration-2-bitcoin-exchange-operators

This is good for bitcoin adoption.

I’m not in the Philippines but this is without good news the more exchanges and the more news there is about bitcoin the better since people will start noticing that this thing called bitcoin does not stop appearing in the news and they will be tempted to investigate what bitcoin is about.

[L00n3y]

I'm from the Philippines and I haven't heard of this news. It would be convenient for bitcoin users in the country if this were to be true.

I'm not sure how these exchanges would affect the Philippine banking systems, because I think that the bitcoin users would utilize these exchanges to their advantage. The local exchange wallet, coins.ph, allows bitcoin owners to easily exchange their BTC and transfer it to banks. If these exchanges have lower transactions fees, then I think the bitcoin users would opt to use this. Perhaps if these exchanges offer services that utilizes the banks as well then it would be a win-win situation for the banks and the exchanges.

Hoping this news is true. This could provide better opportunities for BTC owners and users in the country, and may attract new users as well.

I don't know if the news is legit but I have seen some newspaper online where someone captured a part of the new and yes its true and I think its legit because the central bank have been making some adjustments and talks on how they will regulate BTC in the early months of 2017. Ang yes, for some purposes on low fees and faster transactions we desperately need cryptocurrencies here because there are so many overseas Filipino Overseas worker that need these kind of transactions. The problem is the volatility of price, bitcoins price must be stable enough in order to provide these services.

[UsernameBitcoin]

Really this isn't a big deal because the exchanges could have hosted their IPs in the US and the Phillipines Government could not do anything about it. But I guess it is definitely better than nothing, that's for sure.

[South Park]

Looks like the main purpose is to regulate cryptocurrency trading and implement KYC laws properly.

The dilemma which governments have, especially the stricter ones, is that it's very hard to stop people using BTC unless they manage to ban the Internet altogether.  All they can do is try to ban websites which don't follow their rules, and then they can trace the majority of people who send BTC on the blockchain, with the exception of people who are very good at hiding their identity.

This isn't necessarily a good thing - it really depends on your views on privacy and regulation.

It depends many people do not care that much about using exchanges, just look at how popular they are and so it is obvious that if you are going to move big amounts of money in an exchange eventually you are going to have to go through KYC so this is not exactly new or anything.

[MintCondition]

At last, bitcoin is finally given the attention it deserves. Now the next step is how to incorporate bitcoin in all other things like shops accepting bitcoin as payment or tipping a cab using bitcoin. This also needs to be known by the masses since most of them spend their time browsing the net unproductively. Might as well use that time to earn money

It can be a great help for Filipinos unemployed, maybe when they got to read the news they might got some idea to make a living through btc. It is maybe the first time btc will be in ph newspaper. I thought government doesn't have any knowledge on btc gor it have lots of issues to deal with.

[batang_bitcoin]

I was around here and yet I haven't read this thread before but it has been approved before and the PCB gave permission to those exchanges even before. And the fee for the license is really too high but for an exchange it's nothing.

Really this isn't a big deal because the exchanges could have hosted their IPs in the US and the Phillipines Government could not do anything about it. But I guess it is definitely better than nothing, that's for sure.

It's a big deal because the gov't shows support to bitcoin and for the whole crypto currency market.

[rickadone]

I have read from ETH News that the Central Bank approves licenses for two cryptocurrency exchanges. Do you think it is true? They said the implementing rules are still to come out. Is it really true?

How will it affect the Philippine banking system?

I don’t know if that’s true, because I haven’t seen anyone from Philippine say that such happened. I’m not used to believing these online sources, most of them usually fake news to broadcast and put people into confusion. But if such happens to take place, then it will make things quite easy for those using Bitcoin in Philippine. But I do feel bad about in a way- what if the government starts tax for it.

[ilovestroberi]

I haven't heard about this yet, by the way,  I'm from the Philippines. But if this is true, it's a good news for us, I just hope that the government don't tax it.

[Hamstead]

I have read from ETH News that the Central Bank approves licenses for two cryptocurrency exchanges. Do you think it is true? They said the implementing rules are still to come out. Is it really true?

How will it affect the Philippine banking system?

I don’t know if that’s true, because I haven’t seen anyone from Philippine say that such happened. I’m not used to believing these online sources, most of them usually fake news to broadcast and put people into confusion. But if such happens to take place, then it will make things quite easy for those using Bitcoin in Philippine. But I do feel bad about in a way- what if the government starts tax for it.

It really great if that news is true. I know the government have its final statement about that issue, if it could be happen and make it legal then possible they start collecting taxes from bitcoin investors. Isn't bad for that, anyway all taxes that they are collected is a big help to the government but the problem is how could they handle this one.

[skyline247]

Hey, this is great news! I wish every country would accept Bitcoin and regulate and legalize Bitcoin right now it is taking too long. hahaha

[severaldetails]

For the philippines that is some very good news.
I know a few guys there from the internet, they always had money problems.
And it were not big amounts they needed.
I think that even a signature campaign could bring the people there something they can build an existence on.

[BitFinnese]

I'm from the Philippines and I haven't heard of this news. It would be convenient for bitcoin users in the country if this were to be true.

I'm not sure how these exchanges would affect the Philippine banking systems, because I think that the bitcoin users would utilize these exchanges to their advantage. The local exchange wallet, coins.ph, allows bitcoin owners to easily exchange their BTC and transfer it to banks. If these exchanges have lower transactions fees, then I think the bitcoin users would opt to use this. Perhaps if these exchanges offer services that utilizes the banks as well then it would be a win-win situation for the banks and the exchanges.

Hoping this news is true. This could provide better opportunities for BTC owners and users in the country, and may attract new users as well.

This means more money for the pocket of corrupt officials.  They are not interested on the security of the exchanges, rather they are after on the bitcoin users who have fat wallet and charge them with taxes.  They said they are concerned about the security, but that is just to cover that they are after milllion dollar industry to milk.

On the lighter side, this will encourage more Filipino to join in the bitcoin community because of the said "security" being implemented by the BSP (the reason for the registration)

[South Park]

Hey, this is great news! I wish every country would accept Bitcoin and regulate and legalize Bitcoin right now it is taking too long. hahaha

I know that things seem to be going too slow, but at some point a critical mass is going to be achieved and everything is going to begin moving a lot faster, it is difficult to predict when that is going to happen but I think it is going to take at least 10 years for that to happen.

[faceoff97]

Whats good about this news is the attention and notice given to bitcoin/cryptocurrency. This would mean that in the coming years bitcoin would be really a good mean of buy and sell. I just hope that the government intention was not to really milk for dollars but intead regulate and control the exchange that would bring a win win situation for both side. I juat hope that bitcoin will be accepted for shopping and cab. This would be a good future for every bitcoin user. In addition, the transaction fee would not go more. If the news would just benefit some personal interest it would be better to make bit coin stay at it is without the government interference to maintain the financial freedom.

[cran07]

if this news is true, then good if there are to be new players in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency in the Philippines to be an alternative to coinph and rebit, I hope we'll be able to trade other coins too like what you can do with poloniex and bittrex.

[Theb]

If this is true there won't be a problem building up an exchange business here because in the Philippines Bitcoin cam be freely traded as it is not classified as an illegal currency. The only bad thing about this is of the business will not be true about there annual incom tax return. As they will be heavily scrutized if abused. Another thing to point out is the possibility of establishing more than a market but we might also see local businesses accepting Bitcoin soon.