Why the bitcoin remittance industry isn't really growing

[alyssa85]

Found a really interesting, but very long article on why the bitcoin remittance industry isn't really growing:

https://www.saveonsend.com/blog/bitcoin-blockchain-money-transfer/

Part of it is because the people who start up bitcoin remittance businesses know all about the technology not not much about their target consumers.

Another is that those on the receiving end of the money prefer to receive their money in cash, rather than paid into a bank account or in bitcoin form.

And because the recipients want cash, the senders of the remittances are willing to pay a 3-5% premium to do so. Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) are being defeated by people's desire to keep their finances away from the prying eyes of govts (which can track both bank accounts and the blockchain).

I thoroughly recommend reading the whole article.

[Mometaskers]

People just don't know much about it yet. I don't know how bitcoin remittance companies work but we have exchanges in our country where there are no fees for sending the money from the wallet to a bank account, provided those are within a certain area. If the people sending money back home would know more about how these work, then they can decide if the fees are worth it.

Seems their major concern is the bitcoin price dropping by the time their family receive the bitcoin. Remember, most of the remittance the family of workers are receiving are for daily expenses. If they would send bitcoins though, at least the family back home have the option of saving some for holding.

[BitcoinPanther]

One of the reason probably is the available service.  Just like in our country, there is no such remittance center that accept bitcoin directly so, we cannot remit money using Bitcoin.  Instead, we need to cash it out or use a third party company to convert the Bitcoin and send the fiat money to the remittance.  That is the sad case and reason why Bitcoin remittance industry is not booming.  Aside from that the user that have knowledge about bitcoin.

[25hashcoin]

Fees too high.

When Bitcoin Cash takes over it will ramp up the remittance industry drastically.

[xIIImaL]

One of the reason probably is the available service.  Just like in our country, there is no such remittance center that accept bitcoin directly so, we cannot remit money using Bitcoin.  Instead, we need to cash it out or use a third party company to convert the Bitcoin and send the fiat money to the remittance.  That is the sad case and reason why Bitcoin remittance industry is not booming.  Aside from that the user that have knowledge about bitcoin.

Most of the whales and corporate lead well known about and its uses. They does not want to show this technology to anyone. That is why they made the hierarchy to follow and work as a employee in one company for a long time. If the normal come to know about bitcoin when it is not in control by anyone(now) Everyone will looking into invest or started earning bitcoin. Then will have people to work for their project. This reason works globally in every country to make the people away from bitcoin.

[byteball]

To hedge against volatility, if money are to be cashed out by recipients immediately, one can use USDT or another "private" centralized token pegged to dollar, or Steem Dollars alternatively (also special tokens with price management mechanisms).
Volatility is not a problem when dollar value steadily grows, but when it goes sideways or falls in a bear market it's difficult to send remittances in crypto.
An interesting application would be to provide a way to save in crypto for 3months-1year terms with some guaranteed return, like 5%-10% a year in dollars.
Somebody needs to "insure" the deposit, freezing part of their capital in a contract so that if bear market began, depositor gets compensated.
But insurers need to earn money as well, otherwise they wouldn't freeze.
If crypto market rose much more than promised "interest", the insurers get the difference

[peter0425]

Give it some time. Bitcoin remittance industry is not well know because some of them just started this year. Africa and Asia are their target audience because a lot of them are really working abroad and its not yet Christmas season. Wait till the remittance industry gain traction and I'm sure that more migrant workers will used it as remittance service. Plus only a few has been established. As I have said the industry is still young and we have to wait in the next couple of years to see the direction of this industry.

[byteball]

The article contains some intriguing data.

An interesting diagram:

https://www.saveonsend.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Remittances-prices-across-outbound-countries-March-2017.jpg

among G20 countries, Russia is the least expensive to send money from, and South Africa is the most!

I am starting to think that all the talk about "flight of the capital" from Russia is pure FUD: how would a country suffering flight of capital have 2.09% outbound remitting cost, while English speaking countries 5%-10% (17.78% if including ZA?)

Another explanation could be that all remittances flow exclusively to "de-facto Empire": there are no foreign workers from outside of the former USSR to speak of. So there's no point in ripping off the Empire citizens, as it is them who do all the actual dirty work, sell fruits in street markets etc.

[gentlemand]

The reason Western Union costs so much and is so widely used is that they're located everywhere, have spent untold amounts on compliance and hand you your cash there and then.

Bitcoin does none of these things. Anyone doing remittances with it has to use exchanges of some sort at both ends if they're after money to spend. That's the hard and expensive part and it's the bit Bitcoin doesn't do at all.

Most people accepting remittances are going to be skint and won't be looking to wait around for something they've never heard of to appreciate further.

[adamagb]

Fantastic article.

It takes a long time to disrupt routine. And for some people, no matter how much better bitcoin ends up being than Western Union, they'll simply never stop using WU because it's comfortable and familiar. Look at all the people who still pay AOL $20 a month for their email.

[leonair]

It is just that it is not needed to go to remittances because you can do it for yourself. remittances is like a middleman that use to give you a fee in exchange of their services and with this you will need to give them your information and bitcoin address so in short it is regulated that is so contradicting to the essence of decentralized Bitcoin itself.

[layoutph]

I think the idea behind using black chain in the remittance industry is good. But it needs extra promotion. They need to educate people. Take a look. OFWs are too busy in their daily jobs, do you think they will have time to learn about crypto currency? Another thing, if you are knowledgeable in crypto currency do you think you will send crypto using remittance center rather than sending Bitcoin directly from someone's Bitcoin wallet?

[cpfreeplz]

Fees too high.

When Bitcoin Cash takes over it will ramp up the remittance industry drastically.

Your altcoin talk can go into the altcoin portion of this forum. No one needs bitcoin cash.

People take a long time to figure out that something is better. People like to be stuck in ruts and without a pushy salesman and normal advertisements those sheeple will continue to do what they've always done.

[rido]

Because maybe the product is not good hopefully it did not happen so long so not as much loss as possible.

[Rinaze]

It's true that the crypto industry is slightly harder than stock or even forex for someone who is tech savvy to start entering into but a couple of hours to read and understand takes a long way to go. This is something that the industry as a whole needs to address before we are anywhere near mass adoption.