AMA (Ask Me Anything): The current state of Bitcoin in the Philippines 🇵🇭

[presduterte]

Bump! I'm bored and willing to answer more questions.

How can I use BitCoin to finally defeat the Communists?

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[bitfocus]

does the Government have any plan to promote BTC to be used as your national currency soon?

[saffira]

I have been using this app coins. ph for more than a year. It is very convenient and I did not experience any problem with it. It is one way showing that bitcoin is not banned here in our country. Filipinos see bitcoin in different opinion, but for me it is definitely a good investment. I usually used in for my prepaid loads and I enjoy the discount.

[mk4]

Woops. Sorry for the late reply.

does the Government have any plan to promote BTC to be used as your national currency soon?

Due to bitcoin being very young and the volatility still being very high, I heavily doubt it. Also, were talking about the government here. What are the chances that they would announce bitcoin, which is something they cant control, to be the national currency? Less than 1%.

I have been using this app coins. ph for more than a year. It is very convenient and I did not experience any problem with it.

...for now. Ever heard of the MtGox hack, the Bitfinex hack, the Cryptopia hack, etc? Don't let history repeat itself. Store your funds on a non-custodial wallet.

[Beerwizzard]

Maybe I've missed something but what's so special about bitcoin in the Philippines that we are not able to find in the rest of the world? And who is an OP?
It seems like there must be something special and unique to make them create an AMA here.

[lyks15]

Here in Philippines let's talk about public perception. Filipinos are wise people. They are so realistic they want a proof that someone will become successful because of bitcoin. So most of us did not believe in a small amount of time. In terms of usability I think now coins.ph is become hard proces because many of remittance center where we can get an bitcoin cash in are now off their tie up at coins.ph. And in terms of regularization? All we know that this is impossible in type of government that we have.

[TheCoinGrabber]

What is your preferred method of cashing in and cash out method? I know someone who considered investing but the fees kinda turned him off. He was willing to cash in 10k+ in one go and his bank don't offer such option.

Another one, have you done f2f buying/selling before and how safe is it? What should someone planning to do it do to avoid getting ripped?

[mk4]

Maybe I've missed something but what's so special about bitcoin in the Philippines that we are not able to find in the rest of the world? And who is an OP?
It seems like there must be something special and unique to make them create an AMA here.

It's not that bitcoin is literally different in the rest of the world, it's that each country differs in terms of bitcoin adoption and public perception.

OP: Original Poster

Here in Philippines let's talk about public perception. Filipinos are wise people. They are so realistic they want a proof that someone will become successful because of bitcoin.

I heavily disagree with this. Majority of the filipinos I know and the filipino bitcoin/crypto investors on social media simply buy in just because they think they're going to get rich, even without actually knowing even a slight bit of what bitcoin is and what it does. The "proof" they want to hear is the opinions of permabulls or "moon boys" on social media.

What is your preferred method of cashing in and cash out method? I know someone who considered investing but the fees kinda turned him off. He was willing to cash in 10k+ in one go and his bank don't offer such option.

I personally cash in through people I know and somewhat trust on other forums. And yes, the fees on Coins.ph are quite significant. Suggest the "someone" you know to use LocalBitcoins instead.

Another one, have you done f2f buying/selling before and how safe is it? What should someone planning to do it do to avoid getting ripped?

I personally haven't. Not a single buyer/seller in the city I'm in unfortunately. If you want to be safe, simply do the transaction on a secure place like a mall, or outside a bank where there's security guards with guns. Also, if transacting with big amounts of money, I'd make sure I have a car to use. I wouldn't suggest taking a tricycle or a jeepney after transacting big amounts.

[Zadicar]

Since Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency isnt that heavily regulated in the country but taxes do still bothers me.I've been on crypto for how many years and all crypto earnings goes thru my bank account converted
from my Coins.ph account and now they go already starting to ask on where those earning came from.

Philippines government doesnt really care too much about crypto but transactions made and all things that can sipped out taxes will really be a pain in the ass.Would they possibly
come to that situation?

[mk4]

Since Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency isnt that heavily regulated in the country but taxes do still bothers me.I've been on crypto for how many years and all crypto earnings goes thru my bank account converted
from my Coins.ph account and now they go already starting to ask on where those earning came from.

Philippines government doesnt really care too much about crypto but transactions made and all things that can sipped out taxes will really be a pain in the ass.Would they possibly
come to that situation?

Yea. I think it's less due to them asking because of bitcoin, but more of simply asking where your income is coming from. I don't think they wouldn't care what bitcoin is, as long as they can tax it. 🤷‍♂️ I suggest using less of Coins.ph, and probably a bit more of peer-to-peer through LocalBitcoins. If you could be able to transact in person via cash, then better.

[Kakmakr]

Since Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency isnt that heavily regulated in the country but taxes do still bothers me.I've been on crypto for how many years and all crypto earnings goes thru my bank account converted
from my Coins.ph account and now they go already starting to ask on where those earning came from.

Philippines government doesnt really care too much about crypto but transactions made and all things that can sipped out taxes will really be a pain in the ass.Would they possibly
come to that situation?

Yea. I think it's less due to them asking because of bitcoin, but more of simply asking where your income is coming from. I don't think they wouldn't care what bitcoin is, as long as they can tax it. 🤷‍♂️ I suggest using less of Coins.ph, and probably a bit more of peer-to-peer through LocalBitcoins. If you could be able to transact in person via cash, then better.

Have you had much success using Rebit.ph? I have reached my withdrawal limits for the year on coins.ph and signed up for Rebit, unfortunately they're taking over a month to verify my ID... Do you have any other suggestions for BTC to PHP withdrawals? Other than increasing my Coins.ph limit, which I can't do, because I don't have a permanent address here...

The exchanges usually have a tier structure for limits when people adhere to different levels of their KYC/AML regulations. So, they might give you a withdrawal limit of say $5000 if you provide your ID and if you give 3 months Bank statements, then you qualify for a higher tier withdrawal limit of say $50 000. <Is this applicable there?>

I know LocalBitcoins have also jumped on the KYC/AML bandwagon lately, so no more pseudo anonymity for using Bitcoin on their platform. 

[Clark05]

Here in Philippines let's talk about public perception. Filipinos are wise people. They are so realistic they want a proof that someone will become successful because of bitcoin. So most of us did not believe in a small amount of time. In terms of usability I think now coins.ph is become hard proces because many of remittance center where we can get an bitcoin cash in are now off their tie up at coins.ph. And in terms of regularization? All we know that this is impossible in type of government that we have.

Im also from the country of the Philippines and also a Filipino and I think if we talking about the country who are accpeting to the bitcoin and even the government accept bitcoin Philippines is one of the best example but not 100 percent agree to the bitcoin.
There is a lot of Filipino people who are become successful because they already invest their money to the bitcoin.

[TheCoinGrabber]

snip

I personally cash in through people I know and somewhat trust on other forums. And yes, the fees on Coins.ph are quite significant. Suggest the "someone" you know to use LocalBitcoins instead.

snip

I personally haven't. Not a single buyer/seller in the city I'm in unfortunately. If you want to be safe, simply do the transaction on a secure place like a mall, or outside a bank where there's security guards with guns. Also, if transacting with big amounts of money, I'd make sure I have a car to use. I wouldn't suggest taking a tricycle or a jeepney after transacting big amounts.

Unfortunately I don't know a lot of people who are into bitcoins and those that do probably don't have that much bitcoins anyway. And yeah, it feels unsafe doing any transactions these days. I bring someone with me if I need to withdraw any significant amount.

Thanks for the response, will keep these in mind.

[Bunsomjelican]

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.

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.

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.

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.

I agreed on you pal, since the time was started that Bitcoin became trend in the Philippines lots of MLM company in online  the opportunist scammer used Bitcoin as their front to look for another victim to steal the money of the investors. This has been happened so many year since 2016 and aside from that there more than one exchange now here that Bitcoin accepted as mode of payment and such as Coins.ph, Abra, and Bitbit.

[mk4]

Have you had much success using Rebit.ph? I have reached my withdrawal limits for the year on coins.ph and signed up for Rebit, unfortunately they're taking over a month to verify my ID... Do you have any other suggestions for BTC to PHP withdrawals? Other than increasing my Coins.ph limit, which I can't do, because I don't have a permanent address here...

I personally haven't. I've only used mostly Abra in the past. Withdraws just take a week or so, but this was more than a year ago. I assume it would probably be a lot faster now(hopefully).

Unfortunately I don't know a lot of people who are into bitcoins and those that do probably don't have that much bitcoins anyway. And yeah, it feels unsafe doing any transactions these days. I bring someone with me if I need to withdraw any significant amount.

Thanks for the response, will keep these in mind.

Yeap. I personally only know 1 person that I can trust with bitcoin transactions. It's just difficult if I needed cash urgently. Try out looking for people to transact with on LocalBitcoins, but yea. You'd still have to go through a 3rd party unfortunately. It really sucks, but as of now our options are really really limited.

[jademaxsuy]

Bitcoin in the Philippines was being tagged as scam investment. It was found out that people knowledgeable in  bitcoin use it to collect money from the crowd to which until now it was still unsettled and that individual who made the tagged the bitcoin as scam was already jailed.

It was found that the man collecting money from the crowd use it to buy equipments for.mining bitcoin. And sonce that man could not return the money then he was imprison.

[Karamabit_209]

Well, the state of bitcoin in the Philippines is the same to most countries. Just ordinary things.

[Kamoteng Kahoy]

Well, the state of bitcoin in the Philippines is the same to most countries. Just ordinary things.

Specify it bro, that's the point of this post.

[DreamStage]

Very nice topic, i was surprised with the Coins.ph company working just like Coinbase with a more vast options for everyone in Philippines.

You also said that there are not so many Philippines using Bitcoins, still i am guessing more Philippines will join Crypto world just because of that which is a good thing

[Karamabit_209]

Well, the state of bitcoin in the Philippines is the same to most countries. Just ordinary things.

Specify it bro, that's the point of this post.

Ok, my bad. Many people here in the Philippines are becoming aware of the potential of bitcoin that is why there are now stores who are accepting bitcoin as a payment method. Me personally, I haven't taught that bitcoin can even use in payments before but now, I am using this crypto exchange site that can be used in online businesses, and even physical transactions! The site is good and the transaction speed is very fast. Other than that is many people also do hodling here and join bounties which they can earn money. Well, there are some who do scams but people here unlike before are now becoming smart not to be scammed.