As requested by Jet Cash:


I'm a dude currently residing somewhere in the Philippines. This topic is for people who are genuinely curious on how bitcoin(or cryptocurrencies in general) is doing here in the Philippines.

Feel free to ask serious questions related to the current state of Bitcoin in the Philippines and I'll try my best to answer them as soon as possible.

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Public perception

Bitcoin is decently known here in the Philippines, especially for the teenager-young adult crowd. Unfortunately though, bitcoin is just mostly a investment and a sort of "mirage" that scammers and the uneducated people use to spread their ponzi scheme referral links. Even in the information technology crowd, a huge majority still think that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are just investments(even if they most definitely have the capabilities into understanding what bitcoin actually is, and what it's for), with only a very small minority that's actually passionate about bitcoin whether they're financially invested or not. So yeah, a lot of "when moon" people.

I personally know a few people in the technology industry that "invested" in XRP on it's all time high, without doing any research at all. A lot just claim that "XRP is a long hold". Pretty ironic that they're the demographic that you expect to do a lot of research; and also ironic that they actually sold at the crash even though they said that they would hold for years. LOL

Online social media groups concerning bitcoin are pretty much just breeding grounds for ponzi referral links. It's pretty sad, but it's something that's really expected due to the high percentage of poverty.

A lot of people(the older demographic) also thinks that bitcoin is a scam, simply because all they see on news television is those "bitcoin investment" ponzi schemes get caught up and raided by the police. I really don't blame them sometimes, as the media frequently word their titles quite inaccurately(or maybe on purpose, to spark more controversy).


Usability

The Philippines has Coins.ph, which is pretty much Philippine's Coinbase, but a lot better. With Coins.ph, you can pay your credit card bills, utility bills, telecom bills, government-related bills, insurance, etc, you name it! With that, you can also buy game credits and buy mobile load through the app. Pretty kick-ass if you ask me. Not to mention that you get a decent percentage of cashbacks(up to 10%) after every purchase.

About deposits to Coins.ph, you can deposit money to Coins.ph by simply going to a 7-Eleven store(which is pretty much almost everywhere), and using their digital kiosk. Fees aren't that bad either.

Take note though, that even though a lot of people are using Coins.ph due to the cashbacks and convenience, it doesn't necessarily mean that a lot of people use bitcoin in the Philippines. I think a significant amount of people just use Coins.ph to pay bills using the fiat wallet, instead of the bitcoin wallet.

I think there's a decent number of people who use bitcoin to send and receive bitcoin back and forth from the Philippines to whatever foreign country, but yea, a small minority.


Government Regulations

The Philippine government is just pretty much "meh" on bitcoin. As far as I know, they haven't legalized nor illegalized bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, they pretty much just let it slip. They're more focused on closing those ponzi schemes. The government is pretty much just approving left and right the opening of crypto-related businesses. I really don't think they care that much; as long as there's more taxes to collect, they're probably happy.

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P.S. Abra and Coins.ph are the leading wallet-exchanges in the Philippines; with Coins.ph being the most well known.

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EDIT: I think I should've made this top self-moderated.

I'm also currently residing in the Philippines, but for the most parts of the year, I live in Canada. Tbh, one of the most reputable exchanges in there did a pretty great deal of bridging the gap between the Filipino people and bitcoin in general, though I must admit that most Filipinos are still seeing bitcoin as a ponzi scheme and a get-rich-quick scheme, which is quite saddening. Coins.ph also does a great job in being a concierge with bills payment and buying e-load and whatnot, and I must applaud how their customer service remain top notch even after all these years.

This is because there are many scammers in our country that uses Bitcoin to scam other people. What's worse is these investors doesn't know what they are investing for. They just see how they can make money and don't think about the risks of putting their money into it. The sad part for me is these people have little to no knowledge on what Bitcoin is. What they only think is the returns if they invest into this company or group.

I have been using coins.ph for almost a year already and I didn't encounter any problems using it. The app is very convenient that you don't need to go to line up just to pay bills. I wish more and more users will be using this in the future.

it would be cool if you could write a short summary of the situation with bitcoin in Philippines from your own point of view. some suggestion topics to cover:
- the government stance about bitcoin, do they consider it as a currency or a commodity or something else? how are the regulations? how are taxes?
- the banks attitude towards bitcoin? are they happy and accepting bitcoin or are they blocking user's accounts who trade bitcoin or cause issues?
- how is the adoption of bitcoin (the most important thing i am interested in is seeing shops as in offline/physical location shops that are accepting bitcoin)

I have one question. Can you tell us about attitude of commercial banks in Philippines towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? As far as I know Central Bank of Philippines didn't recognized Bitcoin as currency, so it's grey area for commercial banks. Are they sceptical about crypto? From what I read, legal status of Bitcoin is similar like in my country, attitude of Central Bank also, but commercial banks are not crypto-friendly. They can even close your account if you deal with crypto, some banks also have restricted transfers to several crypto exchanges.

It seems interesting also about bitcoin in the Philippines, because the Philippines is a country that has followed technological advancements today

Last year, one bank was locking up accounts of users that has crypto-related transactions. Wasn't hearing any complaints recently so it's either they're now crypto-friendly, or maybe most crypto people just moved to other banks. For now, they pretty much have no comment on crypto. So as of now, I'd say the Philippines is very crypto friendly.

I don't know anyone paying their taxes on capital gains LOL. Most government officials are pretty much old folks that are oblivious to cryptocurrencies.

I really don't know, as I rarely do meetup trades with LocalBitcoins, as I mostly accept PayPal. Anyway, this shouldn't really be a problem if you chose well secured locations like malls and such.

Very small minority.

Damn LOL. You should've been potentially the first customer to pay in BTC.

Really unfortunate indeed. Poverty does that to people, I guess?

I've left all the local bitcoin/crypto-related groups I knew due to all the spam. Barely any discussion at all.

Anyway, here you go: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CryptoPH/

Oh wow. That's quite a lot higher than I thought.

Genuinely curious.. I haven't tried "partying" in Manila. What were you able to get with ₱1,000-₱2,000?

I am also from the Philippines. When other people from other countries were invited in joining a site they thought thst it is always a scam specially when the people who invited them are filipinos. I think it is our time to alter thei minds that we are all not scammer.

1,000-2,000 is definitely a lot cheaper than I thought; and 3 to 4 hours is a long time. Well, 1,000-2,000 pesos is a lot higher than the minimum wage I guess so that makes sense.

Unfortunately I don't think bitcoin ATM's help a lot. Bitcoin ATM's won't necessarily get people to use it(note the humongous fees). It's good publicity, I guess?