TextCoin.co.uk - Purchase BTC with SMS

[cypherdoc]

i subscribe to an investment newsletter from a guy that thinks currencies will be the investments of the near future.  which one is the question and the choices include gold/silver/bitcoin along with fiat.

if i was an ATT, i would link my text messaging services with other intl carriers to set up a global network and get into the global currency exchange business.

this way when the wife receives the SMS from the husband in USD working in the Fresno fields, she could convert them into the pesos instantaneously thru her Mexican phone carrier from her beachside hacienda.

[1713431528]

1713431528

[1713431528]

1713431528

[cypherdoc]

Wikipedia:

Money sent home by migrants constitutes the second largest financial inflow to many developing countries, exceeding international aid. Estimates of remittances to developing countries vary from International Fund for Agricultural Development's US$301 billion (including informal flows) to the World Bank's US$250 billion for 2006 (excluding informal flows).[1] Remittances contribute to economic growth and to the livelihoods of people worldwide. Moreover, remittance transfers can also promote access to financial services for the sender and recipient, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion. Remittances also foster, in the receiving countries, a further economic dependence on the global economy instead of building sustainable, local economies.

[Anonymous]

This would be awesome on a phone with a built in wallet which spits out an address for you each time you want to buy btc via sms.

You wouldnt need anything else..except maybe google wallet support .  


Last time I looked there was a long wait for the service provider to send the money for the service offered. How do you get around the massive delay in funds arriving ?

[TYDIRocks]

Very cool! I wish you luck with your service.

[bitdragon]

Inspired by this, and I hope I am not off topic and it makes some sense.
Anyone with a smartphone and cash in a pocket can bypass western union, and can start with only 2 people.
Migrant husband gives cash to person A. Person A makes btc payment to home country to Exchanger B who resides in the same city, family receives local cash. Confirmation number confirmed by SMS or something. The current exchange rate needs to be available to both parties. One should have ongoing relationships with key partners and trust is key.
Intl transfer only takes 10 minutes to confirm, on par with Western Union but can be cheaper. I guess this is called p2p money exchangers and bitcoin allows for intl transfers rather quickly.

[WARlrus]

Glad to see that this service is really taking off! I've had a large number of emails from people wanting to help in a variety of ways, and I believe I've finished replying to them all now!

The service is now running a lot more stably than when first launched, and all BitCoin transfers appear to be happening instantly, as the service was designed to do.

As I've mentioned, I'm looking into further international gateways to launch the service, sadly there isn't an easy way of me rolling this out to multiple countries at once, each country will have to have it's own exchange rate, variable fees etc, which adds a whole new layer of complexity to the site. That said - I'm hoping to have a US launch within the next couple of weeks, and would love to hear suggestions of where else you want this service to run

In the meantime - please consider sending a small donation to 1LiBGgTYzkgHqgAmbfCzXKbAu4fwsh7hQS. As a previous poster has mentioned, the margins I'm making on these transactions are extremely small, and the overhead costs of site maintenance etc are not!

But most importantly - please keep on using the service, and please keep sending me any feedback.

[Ryland R. Taylor-Almanza]

Just remembered my pledge today. Sorry for the delay, Molecular. Bitcents sent.

[molecular]

Just remembered my pledge today. Sorry for the delay, Molecular. Bitcents sent.

Cool! It's really nice to see people standing up to their pledges Thanks!

[WARlrus]

TextCoin has now been updated to include the option to buy 0.4BTC for £5, as a lot of people have been buying in bulk - it's now even cheaper to do so!

I'm still investigating international options, hopefully we should see the service expanding into Europe over the next couple of weeks, but unfortunately I'm struggling to find a US gateway provider!

Please continue to send your feedback, it makes the hard work worthwhile!

[ysoliman]

Although it is quite costly what a great idea.
Just bought 0.1 BTC by text, in my wallet within 10 minutes!

+1 for the idea and +1 for the convienience!

Look forward to seeing more from this idea!

[Anonymailer]

This must be the quickest and easiest way to get BTC there is right now. Any chance of a £10 BTC? do the operator charges go down for higher sums?

[WARlrus]

This must be the quickest and easiest way to get BTC there is right now. Any chance of a £10 BTC? do the operator charges go down for higher sums?

Unfortunately the operator charges remain the same for higher amounts, but I have added an option as requested for a £10 spend, which currently gives you 1BTC

[WARlrus]

Apologies for downtime - the server is now back up and running, and should hopefully be a bit more stable after these upgrades :-)

[WARlrus]

Apologies (again) for (yet more) downtime! I've recently moved the servers location, so the service should be a lot faster, and (hopefully) more reliable!

Unfortunately the coins I added when first switching the server back on sold out very quickly - but it's now back up with a larger balance - enjoy!

[cypherdoc]

Apologies (again) for (yet more) downtime! I've recently moved the servers location, so the service should be a lot faster, and (hopefully) more reliable!

Unfortunately the coins I added when first switching the server back on sold out very quickly - but it's now back up with a larger balance - enjoy!

was wondering what the heck happened to you.  welcome back.

[btc_artist]

£10 for 1BTC sounds awfully high. Does it cost a lot to operate/accept payment via the mobile phone companies?

[WARlrus]

£10 for 1BTC sounds awfully high. Does it cost a lot to operate/accept payment via the mobile phone companies?

It is indeed quite expensive to accept payment in this way, however it has been a while since the margins were re-calculated, I'll do some re-thinking of prices shortly :-)

[WARlrus]

Apologies for the recent downtime - I had under-estimated demand yet again, and was running out of coins quicker than I could put them in!

The site is now back up and running :-)

[molecular]

Apologies for the recent downtime - I had under-estimated demand yet again, and was running out of coins quicker than I could put them in!

The site is now back up and running :-)

not on linode, I guess

[WARlrus]

not on linode, I guess

Heh, thankfully not!