Bitcoin is now Available in 6,000 Outlets all over Philippines

[nydiacaskey01]

This is made possible by Abra as they partnered with 7-11 stores in the Philippines this is according to the news posted by Cointelegraph however, as far as I remember, Coins.ph is the first one who partnered with 7-11 so people in the Philippines can buy Bitcoin in 7-11. I hope with this positive news, there will be more merchants in the Philippines who will start accepting Bitcoin. cointelegraph.com/news/all-7-eleven-stores-across-the-philippines-now-sell-bitcoin

[jhenfelipe]

Official statement of Abra:
https://www.abra.com/blog/big-gulps-and-bitcoin-abra-now-available-at-all-7-eleven-stores-in-the-philippines/

This is probably a good news for Abra users, more cash in options for them. However, it would be better if the users will receive their cash in instantly (just like how it is in coins.ph) and not after 1-2 business days.

[romero121]

Philippines is one of the smallest country that have been much used to cryptocurrency usage. Same time it is the country where more people are scammed in the name of bitcoin. Regularly there will be some news from Philippines related to cryptocurrency. Recently more universities and colleges started courses to educate blockchain to all grades.

As there is more support, it shows the growth in various forms. By this partnering there will be much easier access for common people to buy and sell bitcoin even if they weren't much into technology. Also stores, merchants and other businesses will start accepting bitcoin as they can change it to cash very easily.

[btc-facebook]

bitcoin is a future economic revolution, I'm sure the Philippines will sooner or later accept bitcoin,
and if many who accept the sale or purchase of bitcoin will be very good, and ABRA has already done that, hopefully others can also follow like ABRA or coins.ph, because the more that supports buying or selling bitcoin, bitcoin will develop faster.

[GreatArkansas]

I'm from Philippines and once this partnership will work or much better than other cryptocurrency exchanges here in the Philippines, this ABRA with 7-11 will be much comfortable especially for buying Bitcoin.
Because my experience, if you want to buy Bitcoin, is, cashing in first your Philippines Peso(PHP) in some Money Remittance or Banks, so you will be a queue and wait for your turn since there's a lot of people here using money remittance.
I already tried to use 7-11 for cashing in some e-money like GCASH or Coins.ph here in the Philippines, you can do it with less than 3 minutes and receive the money instant.

And I am also a user of Abra and no problem at all especially for their KYC, I already have multiple transactions with Abra and until now they are still not asking some of my personal documents.

[mk4]

Seriously. Abra is honestly a very underrated exchange.Their prices are great(compared to the alternatives in the Philippines at least), and not to mention that their wallet is actually non-custodial, which is a big deal for an exchange. The only pitfall I currently see is that their mobile app sucks.

Philippines is one of the smallest country that have been much used to cryptocurrency usage.

I'd kinda disagree with this. The biggest bitcoin wallet/exchange in the Philippines, Coins.ph, has very very high usage sure, but I really doubt majority of people use it to use their bitcoin. They can use Coins.ph's features without touching bitcoin, but use fiat instead.

[tetyulfania]

Over more than 6,000 Outlets have active using bitcoin in Philippines is the best strategies how to make bitcoin become famous virtual transaction and could replace of bank and money transaction.

[xSkylarx]

Seriously. Abra is honestly a very underrated exchange.Their prices are great(compared to the alternatives in the Philippines at least), and not to mention that their wallet is actually non-custodial, which is a big deal for an exchange. The only pitfall I currently see is that their mobile app sucks.

I also hear good reviews about their platform but that is also my issue about their app. I always use my phone for my crypto transactions so I still prefer coins.ph because it is alot more convenient. If they can make their app more mobile friendly then I think their number of users would greatly increase.

[mk4]

I also hear good reviews about their platform but that is also my issue about their app. I always use my phone for my crypto transactions so I still prefer coins.ph because it is alot more convenient. If they can make their app more mobile friendly then I think their number of users would greatly increase.

Transacting with cryptocurrencies through Abra's mobile app is also fine and easy enough though. I'd just give coins.ph a slight edge over crypto transacting(unless you're transacting coins.ph <-> coins.ph, whereas coins.ph definitely has an edge due to off-chain instant txs). The thing that separates Coins.ph and Abra is just a bit on the UI/UX side, and the potential things you can buy with Coins.ph in-app(e.g. mobile load, Steam points, giftcards, etc). Oh, and Abra definitely lacks marketing. A lot of marketing.

[Baofeng]

As I have said in our local boards, Abra entering the picture should be received with enthusiasm by crypto Filipinos because it will open doors for competition. And with competition each one of them will try to better to be on top and it's going to be a win-win situation for crypto enthusiast. However, coins.ph (top local exchanges) are miles ahead and Abra needs a lot of catching up to do specially turn around times, KYC procedures, specially support in our local board.

[meanwords]

That is actually a good news. I've been using 7-11 to cash in money instead of cash because it is much easier than banks and only 2 companies I know today do that which is Abra and coins.ph. I don't really know much about Abra if it's international but coins.ph is local wallet that is like abra. This will spice up the cryptocurrency competition in the Philippines for sure.

[CryptoBry]

Official statement of Abra:
https://www.abra.com/blog/big-gulps-and-bitcoin-abra-now-available-at-all-7-eleven-stores-in-the-philippines/

This is probably a good news for Abra users, more cash in options for them. However, it would be better if the users will receive their cash in instantly (just like how it is in coins.ph) and not after 1-2 business days.

In that case, I am sure many will agree that for now Coins.ph remains to be undisputed leader in the cryptocurrency scene in the Philippines. I also like Abra but they still have many things to catch and learn while doing business in the country. I am suggesting that Abra improves on its delivery time by linking with other financial service providers to enhance its current offerings.

[leea-1334]

Good news I had no idea you could do that but are people really paying in Bitcoin in these 7-11s? Or are they just buying? Because I cannot see why I would ever go into 7-11 and say hello, give me $10 in BTC. And then the counter says, sure,,, pay $12. Like Bitcoin ATMs, right;)

[Periodik]

Another good step towards mainstreaming of Bitcoin in the Philippines. Getting into a 7-11 partnership is kind of a big deal because 7-11 stores are almost found in all the major islands of the country. Abra competing with coins.ph is a healthy sign. Competition will benefit the customers more than the competitors themselves. The good thing about Abra is that it is catering to a lot more altcoins than coins.ph. That is going to become an edge of the company especially to those people who are huge supporters of altcoins.

[Coyster]

Good news I had no idea you could do that but are people really paying in Bitcoin in these 7-11s? Or are they just buying? Because I cannot see why I would ever go into 7-11 and say hello, give me $10 in BTC. And then the counter says, sure,,, pay $12. Like Bitcoin ATMs, right;)

I clearly get your point, and I'll also love it if the OP or anyone with knowledge on it to answer it.

It would be great if they are actually allowing payments in the bitcoin, to me that would be the best move, as it'll be easier to get people willing to pay for items in the store with bitcoins than getting one to buy bitcoins with fiat in the store.
The more people pay for items with bitcoins, the more people who own the coins and they may not necessarily have to buy it from the store, as an exchange can serve that very purpose.

[Kakmakr]

I am glad to see this Abra is a wallet & exchange partnership and not just another payment processor. We need more exchanges and wallet providers to team up to develop apps like this for direct Bitcoin payments.

Previously people just had to use Payment processors, because the merchants did not want to deal with Bitcoin, they were only interested in fiat currency... so these services converted all bitcoins into fiat for them. This is not real adoption and also not real Bitcoin payments. 

[nydiacaskey01]

Now I am wondering if Abra has a local office here in Philippines, unlike Coins.ph, whenever I am having trouble with their cash out, I will drop by their office.There's a lot of Facebook Online sellers in the Philippines and I hope they would consider accepting Bitcoins because of the ease of payment. I hope this development will open their mind in at least trying Bitcoins as a mode of payment for their online business.

[acroman08]

Good news I had no idea you could do that but are people really paying in Bitcoin in these 7-11s? Or are they just buying? Because I cannot see why I would ever go into 7-11 and say hello, give me $10 in BTC. And then the counter says, sure,,, pay $12. Like Bitcoin ATMs, right;)

Paying in bitcoin would be great but you can't, they only let you buy some Bitcoin. My previous experience in buying bitcoin from 7-11(from coins) is you need to create your own barcode through the app then let them scan the barcode then pay after that it'll be credited on your account. It's good to see another exchange other than coins partnering with 7-11.

I think now Coins.ph provides you with reference number instead of creating your own barcode. when I bought bitcoin back
in 2017 coins.ph provided me with referene number and paid it on 7-11 and the paid amount will be credited to your acount.
the transaction was easy. the only thing I hate about coins.ph is that they have withdrawal limit and the limit will depend on
what level of verification you have on their system.

[suzanne5223]

Good news I had no idea you could do that but are people really paying in Bitcoin in these 7-11s? Or are they just buying? Because I cannot see why I would ever go into 7-11 and say hello, give me $10 in BTC. And then the counter says, sure,,, pay $12. Like Bitcoin ATMs, right;)

Paying in bitcoin would be great but you can't, they only let you buy some Bitcoin. My previous experience in buying bitcoin from 7-11(from coins) is you need to create your own barcode through the app then let them scan the barcode then pay after that it'll be credited on your account. It's good to see another exchange other than coins partnering with 7-11.

You're right with what you said because the last time I checked Abra is more a global investment (crypto and stocks ) platform than been use as a payment system and I'm not surprised with the news of their partnership with the 7-11 because the project was actually officially launched in Phillinpine since 2016. But, this positive news of partnership will definitely boost more crypto user and investors in the Philippine and around the world.

[jhenfelipe]

Now I am wondering if Abra has a local office here in Philippines

In their about us page it was mentiomed that they have an additional office in Manila. However, the exact office address wasn't disclosed, neither on their website nor fb page.

Good news I had no idea you could do that but are people really paying in Bitcoin in these 7-11s? Or are they just buying? Because I cannot see why I would ever go into 7-11 and say hello, give me $10 in BTC. And then the counter says, sure,,, pay $12. Like Bitcoin ATMs, right;)

I clearly get your point, and I'll also love it if the OP or anyone with knowledge on it to answer it.

It would be great if they are actually allowing payments in the bitcoin, to me that would be the best move, as it'll be easier to get people willing to pay for items in the store with bitcoins than getting one to buy bitcoins with fiat in the store.
The more people pay for items with bitcoins, the more people who own the coins and they may not necessarily have to buy it from the store, as an exchange can serve that very purpose.

The answer was only 2 post above yours. To make it clear, people are not paying bitcoin to 7-11, and the store isn't accepting cryptocurrencies either. The partnership only help people to be able to top up their Abra account with fiat and then convert it to any cryptocurrency supported in the App.