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halfawake (OP)
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January 14, 2015, 06:03:47 AM |
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I'm not sure if this forum or the Bitcoin Discussion forum would be the better place for this thread.
I was just wondering if anyone has created a bitcoin equivalent of Western Union. It seems like kind of a no-brainer given the fees WU charges.
...Well, sort of, anyway. Given how volatile bitcoin is, if you're truly wanting to give someone the same amount of money in the fiat currency that you sent, the site may have to do some sort of hedging to compensate for bitcoin's volatility.
In theory, if a service like this doesn't exist, creating one would have no effect on the price of a bitcoin. The person sending money would buy x bitcoins and send it to the person in the foreign country, who would then sell the bitcoins - in other words, the two transactions would cancel themselves out, unless the receiving party decides to keep any bitcoins.
Does anyone know if this type of service exists? If it doesn't, and anyone's feeling entrepreneurial, feel free to use my idea and try and create said service / site. It really seems like it ought to be a natural market for bitcoin.
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BTC: 13kJEpqhkW5MnQhWLvum7N5v8LbTAhzeWj
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Advertised sites are not endorsed by the Bitcoin Forum. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction.
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snarlpill
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January 14, 2015, 09:10:01 PM |
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Bitcoin is the Bitcoin equivalent of Western Union... That is one of the main reasons it is so awesome & needed- send 5 cents or 5 million dollars worth for pennies or free even anywhere in the world. BTC transactions are essentially instant, and if the receiver has accounts set up with exchanges or trades with people in his area, he should be able to exchange it for his local currency or spend it in a short amount of time- hopefully quick enough to offset any major price volatility. I really think the Bitcoin price will stabilize over time, it is still very early for this innovative currency.
I enjoy spending Bitcoin and have found tons of options available for pretty much any item you would need, and getting easier everyday.
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finnile
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January 15, 2015, 08:55:51 AM |
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I'm not sure if this forum or the Bitcoin Discussion forum would be the better place for this thread.
I was just wondering if anyone has created a bitcoin equivalent of Western Union. It seems like kind of a no-brainer given the fees WU charges.
...Well, sort of, anyway. Given how volatile bitcoin is, if you're truly wanting to give someone the same amount of money in the fiat currency that you sent, the site may have to do some sort of hedging to compensate for bitcoin's volatility.
In theory, if a service like this doesn't exist, creating one would have no effect on the price of a bitcoin. The person sending money would buy x bitcoins and send it to the person in the foreign country, who would then sell the bitcoins - in other words, the two transactions would cancel themselves out, unless the receiving party decides to keep any bitcoins.
Does anyone know if this type of service exists? If it doesn't, and anyone's feeling entrepreneurial, feel free to use my idea and try and create said service / site. It really seems like it ought to be a natural market for bitcoin.
What snarlpill said. Also if people go about creating a bitcoin WU , then they will probably charge another fees on top of the transaction which would make it different. A better service, might be to have live conversion counters, where people instantly sell their BTC for cash and don't have to go through all the hassle. |
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MUFC
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January 16, 2015, 05:52:31 PM |
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Bitcoin is the Bitcoin equivalent of Western Union... That is one of the main reasons it is so awesome & needed- send 5 cents or 5 million dollars worth for pennies or free even anywhere in the world. BTC transactions are essentially instant, and if the receiver has accounts set up with exchanges or trades with people in his area, he should be able to exchange it for his local currency or spend it in a short amount of time- hopefully quick enough to offset any major price volatility. I really think the Bitcoin price will stabilize over time, it is still very early for this innovative currency.
I enjoy spending Bitcoin and have found tons of options available for pretty much any item you would need, and getting easier everyday.
Bitcoin is a money transmitter service essentially like Western Union, but the difference is you can get your fiat out of it and this is what the guy is requesting and it's this type of use which is hopefully going to be huge in the remittance market. Like it or not not everyone wants to keep their money in bitcoins and needs fiat for everyday living expenses and a service that takes advantage of bitcoin and exchanges straight for cash would be great. |
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pawel7777
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January 26, 2015, 10:10:49 PM |
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ajaxmoor
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January 26, 2015, 11:01:47 PM |
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I think the existence of these sites will ensure that bitcoins , will be much easier to use for people in developing countries, or for people to learn more about bitcins, and try it out. |
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pawel7777
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January 26, 2015, 11:32:24 PM |
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I think the existence of these sites will ensure that bitcoins , will be much easier to use for people in developing countries, or for people to learn more about bitcins, and try it out. Yup, and it will show that bitcoin is not useful only for scams and drug trades. But some of those remittance companies would only use bitcoin as a method of transfer, in the way that both sender and recipient will only deposit/receive fiat money, so they don't even have to know what is bitcoin and how it works. Other company allowed sender to send bitcoins while recipient can receive the funds as cash straight from the ATM. So there are many interesting options. If only few of those businesses turn to be successful, it would be a pretty big thing for bitcoin. |
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dsly
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January 27, 2015, 04:11:22 PM |
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Interesting articles, I think there are already companies which are using these services to get people to send money who don't have access to phones and internet. |
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halfawake (OP)
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January 31, 2015, 01:51:59 AM |
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Bitcoin is the Bitcoin equivalent of Western Union... That is one of the main reasons it is so awesome & needed- send 5 cents or 5 million dollars worth for pennies or free even anywhere in the world. BTC transactions are essentially instant, and if the receiver has accounts set up with exchanges or trades with people in his area, he should be able to exchange it for his local currency or spend it in a short amount of time- hopefully quick enough to offset any major price volatility. I really think the Bitcoin price will stabilize over time, it is still very early for this innovative currency.
I enjoy spending Bitcoin and have found tons of options available for pretty much any item you would need, and getting easier everyday.
I totally agree with everything you said here. But...we, on this forum, are kind of the true believers of bitcoin. Fiat isn't going anywhere for a while and ideally bitcoin will take over one of these days, I just meant as an intermediary step until that day occurs. |
BTC: 13kJEpqhkW5MnQhWLvum7N5v8LbTAhzeWj
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cryptocoiner
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January 31, 2015, 12:52:49 PM |
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I'm not sure if this forum or the Bitcoin Discussion forum would be the better place for this thread.
I was just wondering if anyone has created a bitcoin equivalent of Western Union. It seems like kind of a no-brainer given the fees WU charges.
...Well, sort of, anyway. Given how volatile bitcoin is, if you're truly wanting to give someone the same amount of money in the fiat currency that you sent, the site may have to do some sort of hedging to compensate for bitcoin's volatility.
In theory, if a service like this doesn't exist, creating one would have no effect on the price of a bitcoin. The person sending money would buy x bitcoins and send it to the person in the foreign country, who would then sell the bitcoins - in other words, the two transactions would cancel themselves out, unless the receiving party decides to keep any bitcoins.
Does anyone know if this type of service exists? If it doesn't, and anyone's feeling entrepreneurial, feel free to use my idea and try and create said service / site. It really seems like it ought to be a natural market for bitcoin.
But what for? Bitcoin itself is a currency to replace all fiat. Transfer service is included in a bitcoin realisation. |
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Unkle
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January 31, 2015, 02:40:06 PM |
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I think the existence of these sites will ensure that bitcoins , will be much easier to use for people in developing countries, or for people to learn more about bitcins, and try it out. That's the point. Once people realize how much money they can save it should be a no-brainer to use these services. You don't even need to use bitcoin yourself and could just let a third party handle it for you. Now, all we need to do is hope it catches on. |
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michinzx
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February 01, 2015, 12:33:16 AM |
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I'm not sure if this forum or the Bitcoin Discussion forum would be the better place for this thread.
I was just wondering if anyone has created a bitcoin equivalent of Western Union. It seems like kind of a no-brainer given the fees WU charges.
...Well, sort of, anyway. Given how volatile bitcoin is, if you're truly wanting to give someone the same amount of money in the fiat currency that you sent, the site may have to do some sort of hedging to compensate for bitcoin's volatility.
In theory, if a service like this doesn't exist, creating one would have no effect on the price of a bitcoin. The person sending money would buy x bitcoins and send it to the person in the foreign country, who would then sell the bitcoins - in other words, the two transactions would cancel themselves out, unless the receiving party decides to keep any bitcoins.
Does anyone know if this type of service exists? If it doesn't, and anyone's feeling entrepreneurial, feel free to use my idea and try and create said service / site. It really seems like it ought to be a natural market for bitcoin.
i dont see the point of this, bitcoin can be sent anywhere in the world, instantly, and for a negligible fee. plus exchanges like coinbase allow anyone to buy in fiat or sell for fiat. |
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bitwarrior
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February 01, 2015, 04:26:31 AM |
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I'm not sure if this forum or the Bitcoin Discussion forum would be the better place for this thread.
I was just wondering if anyone has created a bitcoin equivalent of Western Union. It seems like kind of a no-brainer given the fees WU charges.
...Well, sort of, anyway. Given how volatile bitcoin is, if you're truly wanting to give someone the same amount of money in the fiat currency that you sent, the site may have to do some sort of hedging to compensate for bitcoin's volatility.
In theory, if a service like this doesn't exist, creating one would have no effect on the price of a bitcoin. The person sending money would buy x bitcoins and send it to the person in the foreign country, who would then sell the bitcoins - in other words, the two transactions would cancel themselves out, unless the receiving party decides to keep any bitcoins.
Does anyone know if this type of service exists? If it doesn't, and anyone's feeling entrepreneurial, feel free to use my idea and try and create said service / site. It really seems like it ought to be a natural market for bitcoin.
You will just need to have more exchanges that makes the transition from fiat to bitcoin and vice versa as smooth as possible. One exchange that is currently doing this is coins.ph, you might try to check it out for yourself. |
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girb16
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February 02, 2015, 04:50:21 PM |
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Western Bitcoin? NO. How about (Traveling Bitcoin) There is no reason why Bitcoin couldn't replace Western Union.
Other than the political will of the bankers!
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KizerWilhelm
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February 05, 2015, 02:59:51 PM |
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I agree here. The only problem is that Bitcoin is not as well known across the world as Western Union is.
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arvindr
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February 07, 2015, 09:26:29 AM |
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I think in countries like Philipines and Thailand, coins.ph allows them to use a WU like service with their ATM's and other options, which is really good , specially when they have no fees.
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Ig0r8
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February 09, 2015, 02:34:29 PM |
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Thinking about WU-like service I came to these conclusions:
How do you plan to receive and give money to your clients? If you want to compete with WU you need an offline places (small kiosks will do).
Say you have 1 kiosk in Madrid and 1 in Tokyo. Person A gives you 100 Euro in Madrid. You convert them to Bitcoin and make a transaction. Person B comes to your office in Tokyo and receives Yens.
1. Bitcoin works like any other ecosystem. If you stay inside it - you are good (have small Tx fee). If you convert Bitcoins to fiat - you always loose more %.
2. In the scheme above when person transfers money from Madrid to Tokyo - why do you need to use Bitcoin? You can have some cash in Madrid and some cash in Tokyo. Office A accepts money in Madrid and Office B gives money directly to client from their pile of cash.
3. Money transfer in WU costs a lot less then you think. Their profits go to office rentals, staff, salaries etc. If you wish to do you business in few countries and open 5-10 offices in different cities, hire people, pay taxes and earn money for yourself - you might end up with same fees as WU.
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pawel7777
Legendary
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February 09, 2015, 04:43:27 PM |
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Thinking about WU-like service I came to these conclusions:
How do you plan to receive and give money to your clients? If you want to compete with WU you need an offline places (small kiosks will do).
Say you have 1 kiosk in Madrid and 1 in Tokyo. Person A gives you 100 Euro in Madrid. You convert them to Bitcoin and make a transaction. Person B comes to your office in Tokyo and receives Yens.
1. Bitcoin works like any other ecosystem. If you stay inside it - you are good (have small Tx fee). If you convert Bitcoins to fiat - you always loose more %.
2. In the scheme above when person transfers money from Madrid to Tokyo - why do you need to use Bitcoin? You can have some cash in Madrid and some cash in Tokyo. Office A accepts money in Madrid and Office B gives money directly to client from their pile of cash.
3. Money transfer in WU costs a lot less then you think. Their profits go to office rentals, staff, salaries etc. If you wish to do you business in few countries and open 5-10 offices in different cities, hire people, pay taxes and earn money for yourself - you might end up with same fees as WU.
Obviously bitcoin remittance companies managed to figure out transmitting with fees lower than WU. I don't know how it works 'under the hood' and not sure how Rebit can operate with zero fees, plus different companies can have different solutions. Anyway, you don't need to open physical offices and hire staff in every city in the world. Even WU uses affiliate 'agents' (working for % of fee). I think the key factor here is that with Bitcoin network you don't need any central system of IOUs, transactions can be fully completed much faster and there's no need of any international bank transfers. |
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finnile
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February 09, 2015, 07:16:27 PM |
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Seems remittance services are on a rise in asia and countries like Philippines.
They have some really nice services for these.
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