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

[Ipwich]

Good job OP, you seem to have the right knowledge to represent the Philippines here for other people to know also about the crypto standing.
AFAIK, there has been to guidelines yet on how to treat crypto, it's not regulated so people in the Philippines have all the freedom to completely enjoy their income in crypto.

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[arielbit]

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. 

bittrex international and kraken international can wire you fiat if you have a USD bank account in the Philippines, they have better buy and sell rates than coins.ph. so far only 1000$ or more is a good minimum cash out option because of bank fees.

[hen cet]

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.

The use of bitcoin in the Philippines has made rapid progress due to government policies that support transactions using bitcoin, so that public perceptions are very positive.
They do it for investment, trade or for payments where it makes it easier when traveling abroad because transactions can be done directly and peer to peer.
Merchants who receive payments with bitcoin are increasing because the Philippines is also a busy tourist destination.

[Ailmand]

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.

The use of bitcoin in the Philippines has made rapid progress due to government policies that support transactions using bitcoin, so that public perceptions are very positive.
They do it for investment, trade or for payments where it makes it easier when traveling abroad because transactions can be done directly and peer to peer.
Merchants who receive payments with bitcoin are increasing because the Philippines is also a busy tourist destination.

Aside from that, thru coins.ph people were able to use it as a remitance service which is really convenient. Family members that are working outside the country can actually send their remittances with just a click, instead of using banks or remitance company as a middle-man which might take a couple of days.

[maianh09]

I have a question I want to give!
In the Philippines, are all ICOs censoring and licensing before making promotions? Also, are participating banks sponsoring ICOs projects like the information given on internet blogs?
A funny question: Can I use Bitcoin to pay 100% of the costs if I travel to your country?

[Crypto Girl]

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.

Then might as well you should have a business to backed up your income or lessen the withdrawals from banks and do more in remittance, perhaps fees don't bother you.

A funny question: Can I use Bitcoin to pay 100% of the costs if I travel to your country?

No as for this moment and yet that will surely far to happen. There's only a little percentage of Filipinos that know cryptos while the rest perceive bitcoin as nothing but a scam. We have here coins.ph that lets you convert btc to php but that wouldn't enough to say that you can 100% use btc here. It's more like a online payment but if you will travel around you really need a fiat.

[mk4]

I ignored this topic for a while, I didn't know this topic was still getting replies LOL.

I have a question I want to give!
In the Philippines, are all ICOs censoring and licensing before making promotions?

Not sure if I understood your question clearly, but regulations concerning ICOs in the Philippines are pretty much blurry as of the moment: https://cointelegraph.com/news/philippine-securities-regulator-postpones-ico-regulation-release

Also, are participating banks sponsoring ICOs projects like the information given on internet blogs?

Not that I know of, no.

A funny question: Can I use Bitcoin to pay 100% of the costs if I travel to your country?

Well, you currently can't pay for everything through bitcoin per se, but you can easily sell your BTC through Coins.ph or Abra quite quickly, and simply use that money to transact to merchants instead.

[GreatArkansas]

Want to add something about Bitcoin in the Philippines.
Some of the people here taking advantage of using crypto, they use it for some fraud in scams here in Philippines.
These group of people is destroying the image of cryptocurrency especially the Bitcoin in the Philippines.

I found 3 advisories from SEC Philippines which involved in cryptocurrencies:

1.

This another so-called company claiming that they are registered with SEC as a corporation but it discovered that they are not.
They also claim that they are using the money they collected in trading cryptocurencies.

The said corporation also entices the public to invest by promising unreasonably high returns amounting to twenty-five percent (25%) return on investment guaranteed every week.

Read more: http://www.sec.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2018Advisory_Cryptoexpert.pdf

2.

This is also like the first one which more on passive income, holding their coin and you will earn profits passively.
They registered with SEC for only wholesale activities but they conducted a solicit investment to the public.
Read more: http://www.sec.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2018Advisory_Purepound.pdf

3.

One of my college friends introduced this before to me. They are more on promoting this coin to everybody, like something a passive investment, when you just hold their coin, you will earn profits.
Read more: http://www.sec.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018Advisory_FreedomTradersClubamdPloutosCoin.pdf

[mk4]

The Philippines in a nutshell. A lot of lazy people that are looking for get-rich-quick schemes instead of actually working hard for them to achieve their goals. This is why we have a lot of pyramid schemes popping up and being advertised everywhere looking at you, frontrow. It's both sad and pathetic.

[Muzika]

The Philippines in a nutshell. A lot of lazy people that are looking for get-rich-quick schemes instead of actually working hard for them to achieve their goals. This is why we have a lot of pyramid schemes popping up and being advertised everywhere looking at you, frontrow. It's both sad and pathetic.

and recently there was a news regarding four investment scam that was offering "double your money within a week", sometimes it is not the scammer that should blame because it is the greediness of the investors, they want to double their investments within a week even the central bank cant do that.

[xvids]

The Philippines in a nutshell. A lot of lazy people that are looking for get-rich-quick schemes instead of actually working hard for them to achieve their goals. This is why we have a lot of pyramid schemes popping up and being advertised everywhere looking at you, frontrow. It's both sad and pathetic.

and recently there was a news regarding four investment scam that was offering "double your money within a week", sometimes it is not the scammer that should blame because it is the greediness of the investors, they want to double their investments within a week even the central bank cant do that.

I hate to admit it but it's true there are plenty of lazy people here in the Philippines that wants to instantly be rich or wealthy .
And it is right sometimes it is not the scammers to be blame it is their greediness for money,
They would fall for an investment that is obviously a scam.

[jonaire99]

The Philippines in a nutshell. A lot of lazy people that are looking for get-rich-quick schemes instead of actually working hard for them to achieve their goals. This is why we have a lot of pyramid schemes popping up and being advertised everywhere looking at you, frontrow. It's both sad and pathetic.

I agree with your opinion. These get-rich-quick schemes are mostly found in one of the popular social media and many people have been victim of it. Filipinos, especially the young ones, are also fond of this popular social media and many of them are already victimized by these online investment schemes that uses cryptocurrency like bitcoin as of their mode of payment. Bitcoin is getting popular in the philippines but a regulation might be needed to protect people from these scams.

[nak02]

In the philippines, people in this country is still lack of knowlegde about crypto or in bitcoins even some of the user of coins.ph they do not know what is really the use of it. Just like a online wallet that you can deposit money and can cash our thru remittance and etc. But I don't quite see some progress now in this country that bitcoin or crypto is acceptable as a payment or usable maybe in future they will.

[mk4]

and recently there was a news regarding four investment scam that was offering "double your money within a week", sometimes it is not the scammer that should blame because it is the greediness of the investors, they want to double their investments within a week even the central bank cant do that.

Pretty much. I hate to sort of "victim blame", but seriously, the scams are too obvious that you'd need to be extra greedy and extra delusional to fall for those scams. Some even as bad as claiming to pay you 30% of your deposit every day. Like what.

[Crypto Girl]

and recently there was a news regarding four investment scam that was offering "double your money within a week", sometimes it is not the scammer that should blame because it is the greediness of the investors, they want to double their investments within a week even the central bank cant do that.

Yet these schemes took advantage of people's greediness and ignorance and it worsen the situation by recruiting more people. They didn't realize that they're just making more rich those who is ahead of them, just imagine those years when networking boomed.

Pretty much. I hate to sort of "victim blame", but seriously, the scams are too obvious that you'd need to be extra greedy and extra delusional to fall for those scams. Some even as bad as claiming to pay you 30% of your deposit every day. Like what.

Seriously yeah and their products serves as their front, like people didn't realize that in order to earn decently you need to invite more and not to just sell those products. *sigh >>

[Vaskiy]

and recently there was a news regarding four investment scam that was offering "double your money within a week", sometimes it is not the scammer that should blame because it is the greediness of the investors, they want to double their investments within a week even the central bank cant do that.

Pretty much. I hate to sort of "victim blame", but seriously, the scams are too obvious that you'd need to be extra greedy and extra delusional to fall for those scams. Some even as bad as claiming to pay you 30% of your deposit every day. Like what.

Well, same as the growth and increased usage increased is the scams in the name of bitcoin around Philippines. Greed always accompanies when something has got value, and same is the reason for increased scam. As Philippines is one of the country with good support for bitcoin on the Asian continent supporting more online services with bitcoin as payment and more complaints were recorded with fraudulent activities in the name of bitcoin.

[mk4]

Pretty much. I hate to sort of "victim blame", but seriously, the scams are too obvious that you'd need to be extra greedy and extra delusional to fall for those scams. Some even as bad as claiming to pay you 30% of your deposit every day. Like what.

Seriously yeah and their products serves as their front, like people didn't realize that in order to earn decently you need to invite more and not to just sell those products. *sigh >>

Pretty much. Without the actual products, it's a textbook definition of a scam. The products are just the mirages that makes it legal. It's honestly looks like a flaw with the law and with regulations. The same schemes are running in some countries, even the United States as far as I know.

[Steamtyme]

Sorry to go off-topic but this is a question about the Phillipines in general. Is it common for people to have let's say peculiar names by Western Standards. Here's an example "Princess Mary" , my wife said Mary and the dad corrected her it's Princess Mary. I had  a good chuckle later on, as I'd never come across this before. We have a fairly large community here from the Phillipines, and I've heard a few other examples.

[crwth]

Sorry to go off-topic but this is a question about the Phillipines in general. Is it common for people to have let's say peculiar names by Western Standards. Here's an example "Princess Mary" , my wife said Mary and the dad corrected her it's Princess Mary. I had  a good chuckle later on, as I'd never come across this before. We have a fairly large community here from the Phillipines, and I've heard a few other examples.

In the Philippines, having peculiar names are somewhat a common thing. I know someone who is called Baby, just because. Not because she's still a baby, but naming her as Baby is like that. I saw a meme (which I think is true) where people have named their child "Star Margarine" just because also or they like that product so much. People like to call names here also that is somewhat close to what your name sounds like, or something like that.

I think people should think about the future of their children if they are naming their kids like that. Lol

[mk4]

I personally haven't heard of a person with that exact name, but names like that are pretty uncommon in the Philippines. For some reason people here has some weird naming habits. Along with what crwth stated, I met a kid here in the Philippines in the past named Cutie Pie. Like what the hell. The parents are pretty much asking for their kid to be bullied in shool lmao(I hope the kid didn't).