U.S.-China Bitcoin Opportunity

[Siegfried]

I got into bitcoin about six months ago. This has been the most exciting time of my life, but if only I had got in six months or one year earlier. I will always regret that I was not a super-early adopter, but there are still a lot of great opportunities. Rather than wallowing in misery that I am not already a bitcoin millionaire and watching from the sidelines, I want to do something significant in the bitcoin revolution. I have many ideas floating around in my head, but I do not have the knowledge, skills, resources, or network to make them reality myself. Anyway, I would like to share one of my small, not very unique, but incredibly usefully ideas for taking advantage of bitcoin, in the hope that others will see the potential that I do and work with me to make it happen.

Problem:

I work in China. Every American working in China who I have met has had the terrible experience of trying to send money back to U.S. bank accounts. Common reasons for needing to do so are to pay student loans, credit card bill, send money to parents or kids, etc. People often spend hours at a time, multiple times per month, sometimes more than 10 hours per month at the bank dealing with money transfer affairs. There are regulations on how much RMB can be converted to dollars per day (I have seen limits as low as 500 dollars per day), how much can be sent, and of course, high fees. So in order to send a significant amount they need to go to the bank multiple times. Also, most Americans do not have adequate Chinese language ability to do this on their own, so they need to waste the time of a Chinese colleague as well. There are tens of thousands of people in China currently dealing with this problem. Whenever I hear people talking about this, I want to tell them about the virtues of bitcoin, and I usually do, but bitcoin still does not offer them a way to do exactly what they need to do - put dollars in U.S. bank accounts.

Solution:

It is a rather simple currency exchange/remittance scheme that I am proposing. Next time I hear someone expressing their despair at needing to go through the normal money transfer process, I will offer to take their RMB cash and quickly turn it into dollars in the U.S. bank account of their choosing. So how would I work? I take their cash then send the equivalent amount of bitcoin and the designated account information to a a partner in the United States who then transfers dollars to that account. I am not sure what the quickest and cheapest way to transfer dollars from one U.S. account to another is, but I am sure that it is cheaper and faster than transferring from a Chinese account through the archaic transfer system.

The partner/partners that I need is someone who has dollars in the United States and a bitcoin-for-RMB seller in China. I am not interested in decreasing my bitcoin holdings, so when I take RMB from someone, I want to immediately buy back bitcoin at the same rate. Obviously, given the current regulatory situation in China, doing this through an exchange like BTC China is not possible. This needs to be done in a private, unofficial way. I know there are people who want to sell bitcoins in China - the people who currently sell on Taobao (miners, presumably) are not just going to disappear.

I hope I have explained my vision well enough. If anyone reading this would like to work with me to take advantage of this opportunity, please send me a private message. Once we figure out how to make this work in my city, we can branch out and establish decentralized network of "agents" to offer this service in cities throughout China.

[Siegfried]

By the way, I understand the Chinese government's concern about capital flight. However, what I am proposing would not harm the Chinese economy at all. No money would actually leave China. The RMB money that I take to transfer to dollars will be paid to a bitcoin miner who will then use that RMB to pay for Chinese-made hardware, Chinese coal or hydroelectric energy, other Chinese living and operating expenses, and Chinese consumption. The only entity that would "suffer" is the banking sector, which would be deprived of transfer fees.

[BTCisthefuture]

Having lived in China for a few years it's certainly true what you say about trying to send money back home.  It's doable, but a bit of a headache, especially when having to go to multiple banks sometimes.  Then again this is true if you're an expat in most countries ,  no doubt one of bitcoins strengths is the improvements it has on international wire transfers.

Just a heads up, BTCChina still accepts cash deposits, you just need to contact them on QQ for directions on where to deposit the cash.

Not to sound like a downer, but trying to run a 'business' like this in China seems very risky unless you have some good guanxi with the government and regulators. Not to mention the numerous issues you would have trying to get a valid work visa to do something like this.  You're likely playing with fire twice  1) bitcoin related business when china is cracking down on it  2) inproper work visa which is cause for deportation (as i'm sure you've seen happen to others).

Best of luck though, if your fees are low then I know it's a service some expats would like because what you said about sending money back home from China is very true, it's a bit of a hassle.

[BTCisthefuture]

btw , even thought i might have sounded a bit negative in my last post about current regulations in china with bitcoin and work visa related issues.
if it's a simple case of you needing btc for rmb or you needing to send money to someone's usa bank to transfer to another bank account i might be able to help out. im currently still in china but moving back to america soon and i still have bank accounts in both countries and family in both countries so moving money/btc around shouldn't be that hard for me.  let me know if you want to talk some more. 

i've certainly helped people in the past with things like this. for example, someone will give me rmb and ill use money in my american bank account to send it to their family/friend in america so people out here don't have to deal with international transfers.

to answer your question about the cost of moving money from one account to another in america. i dont know about doing it online but if you simply walk into any bank in america and ask to make a deposit into someone elses account there is no charge for that.