[2017-12-06] Western Union vs Cryptocurrency

[tokenzone]

Western Union (WU), one of the largest companies of international transfers, launched a campaign against cryptocurrency transfers. The decision, which also complies with the Company's internal regulations, is an attempt to impede the provision of services and transactions related to cryptocurrencies.

Read more: https://tokenzone.io/all-posts/western-union-vs-digital-money

[Lancusters]

Of course they are against it. They charge for their services about 10%. Who of the owners of bitcoin will use their services? They understand that bitcoin will displace the translation market. Companies such as Western Union will die faster than banks. Banks have the ability to lend to legal persons. Western Union sucks. His place in the dustbin.

[Kemarit]

They are competitors aren't they? Its only logical for WU to launched a campaign against bitcoin and crypto. Another factor is that they are threaten, more and more people are sending remittances globally using bitcoin now as opposed to the old and traditional way and waiting for 3-5 business days before someone get's their remittances. Specially this season, where workers abroad who can't make it in time for the holidays, will just send money to their families using bitcoin. From Asia to Africa, there are a lot of bitcoin remittances now popping around and this trend may continue and I'm sure WU are feeling the pressure now.

[iamTom123]

Of course they are against it. They charge for their services about 10%. Who of the owners of bitcoin will use their services? They understand that bitcoin will displace the translation market. Companies such as Western Union will die faster than banks. Banks have the ability to lend to legal persons. Western Union sucks. His place in the dustbin.

I hope there would be someone that can advice Western Union about the futility of such a campaign. Instead of wasting their time and resources for such a worthless project, they might as well save the money for the time when they could not anymore sustain the business due to falling sales. Or better yet why not established their own cryptocurrency project...am sure many would be attracted to see WU getting into the cryptocurrency market since they have the capital as well as goodwill and credibility in the money transfer business. Fighting cryptocurrency can prove to be so futile and it can go against their own image and brand. Soon they would realize that joining the bandwagon could be a better option as WU does not have the capacity to stall the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.

[Slow death]

Western Union sucks. His place in the dustbin.

They are dying little by little and strange that a few years ago I received a lot of emails from scammers posing as Western Union directors and told me that I won a contest and that I should send  $350 so they could handle the documents for me to have access to money, the exaggeration of the scammers was so high to the point that they told me that I earned 35 million pounds, of course I did not believe in these scammers, but what makes me shocked is that i never heard any government tell their citizens not to use Western Union because it is used for scam.

They are competitors aren't they?

They are bad competitors and bad losers.

[Iranus]

Back in 2013 or so, there was a Western Union ad advertising their fees (which were in fact very high).  A picture was circulated to show that BTC, at the time, was a dramatically cheaper and freer payment system.

Now it's a somewhat different battle, since BTC transfer fees are a lot higher since then and they vary dramatically from day to day.

Still, I'd say that BTC and Western Union have very different audiences.  Western Union are unlikely to convince many BTC supporters of anything.

[darkangel11]

And so what? I mean WE and PP were the leeches of the system. They came to life because banks were slow and didn't work 24/4, so they filled the niche. Now this niche is starting to disappear because cryptocurrencies are offering the same thing even faster, without the need to register and without the fear of chargebacks. I haven't used WE even once in my life. I had no need for it and it seemed too expensive.
The future of money doesn't include fiat payment processors, deal with it. It's going to either end with decentralized cryptocurrencies or an automated, fast banking system.

[FUD Expert]

The owners must be having insomnia everytime he hears news about bitcoin. Bitcoin gonna bring down all their fortunes and business.

[Guardian.P]

This is a fiasco bro. These are manifestations of weakness, so they have told their users about the beginning of the fall. Agree, If they were all good this statement would not be

[tokenzone]

Of course they are against it. They charge for their services about 10%. Who of the owners of bitcoin will use their services? They understand that bitcoin will displace the translation market. Companies such as Western Union will die faster than banks. Banks have the ability to lend to legal persons. Western Union sucks. His place in the dustbin.

They're competitors, but we should not "fight" cryptocurrency. We need to think about how to wok in the new market realities.

[Lucius]

It is obvious that they do this for just one reason,fear of losing part of the profits today or in the future.But as mentioned in the article I also think that BTC is not threat to WU now,maybe in few years situation will be different.Now we have BTC scalability problem which is the main obstacle on the road to becoming a serious competitor to WU or similar services.

I also never use WU,but by what I know their service is quite expensive.Their advantage is that you can found them almost everywhere in the world and send money,also they are long on the market and they have built a reputation in the money sending/receiving service.

[tokenzone]

They are competitors aren't they? Its only logical for WU to launched a campaign against bitcoin and crypto. Another factor is that they are threaten, more and more people are sending remittances globally using bitcoin now as opposed to the old and traditional way and waiting for 3-5 business days before someone get's their remittances. Specially this season, where workers abroad who can't make it in time for the holidays, will just send money to their families using bitcoin. From Asia to Africa, there are a lot of bitcoin remittances now popping around and this trend may continue and I'm sure WU are feeling the pressure now.

An increasing amount of transactions involving cryptocurrencies is, of course, affecting the "classical" system of money transfers. So, it is even more interesting to see how giants like WE will react to it.

[tokenzone]

Back in 2013 or so, there was a Western Union ad advertising their fees (which were in fact very high).  A picture was circulated to show that BTC, at the time, was a dramatically cheaper and freer payment system.

Now it's a somewhat different battle, since BTC transfer fees are a lot higher since then and they vary dramatically from day to day.

Still, I'd say that BTC and Western Union have very different audiences.  Western Union are unlikely to convince many BTC supporters of anything.

They have different targeted audiences because the transactions and transfers involving Bitcoin are still not commonly understood. The situation will be changing due to the increasing number of transactions with Bitcoin.

[michkima]

I am not surprised by this! Certainly they will do everything in their power to impede cryptocurrencies' transactions because it is a direct threat to their business. Imagine if everyone are doing cryptocurrency transfers rather than fiat transfers, then consumers worldwide will no longer be needing the services of Western Union for fiat transfers are its main reason for existence.

Simply put, the growth of cryptocurrencies enables its investors to transfer their cryptocurrencies online without having the need to obtain the services of any money transfer companies.

[Domenc]

This is result of jealousy and fear rising competitor, as bitcoin market value is rising people are getting to know about it and how they can easily transfer money from one country to another easily. Western Union basically work for transferring money worldwide but I think they also know bitcoin can easily overtake their market, thereby creating cheap stunts like anti campaigns but this will only help bitcoin gain more fame nothing else.

[tokenzone]

This is result of jealousy and fear rising competitor, as bitcoin market value is rising people are getting to know about it and how they can easily transfer money from one country to another easily. Western Union basically work for transferring money worldwide but I think they also know bitcoin can easily overtake their market, thereby creating cheap stunts like anti campaigns but this will only help bitcoin gain more fame nothing else.

WE has one advantage. In all those countries where cryptocurrencies are banned it is the best way to send money internationally

[SixOfFive]

If we compare both western union and cryptocurrency than I find cryptocurrency is better. It is because cryptocurrency is not just alternative to just international money transfer system but it is more a global currency which can be used all over the world.
It is faster, efficient and better than western union in almost every expect. Transaction fees is also quite low than WU.
Only limitation is its price fluctuation, there is always a risk of price reduction coz of its high volatility

[vit05]

This is ridiculous. But it shows how Cryptocurrency will disrupt everything. Wester Union, paypal and other will have only one option: Adapt or die. They can not compete against Bitcoin and they know. They have 3 years to make all the money that they need before their business start to become useless.