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dasource
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March 23, 2015, 02:54:25 PM |
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For the best experience look for an exchange or localbitcoins ... using Paypal just does not cut it for me, unless ofcourse he/she plans to use paypal to buy further stuff.
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^ I am with STUPID!
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ChuckBuck
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March 23, 2015, 03:30:14 PM |
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It's too bad there's no service like Bitpesa yet in Namibia like there is in Kenya and Tanzania: https://www.bitpesa.co/That'd make it really easy, if they'd did it the mobile money way like Kenya started with M-Pesa... |
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AtheistAKASaneBrain
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March 23, 2015, 03:38:51 PM |
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Thats a lot of money. The problem is he needs to find either a local seller that it's into bitcoin, or buying whatever he wants with bitcoin itself and hoping someone wants to send whatever he buys to there.
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funkenstein
Legendary
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Activity: 1066
Merit: 1050
Khazad ai-menu!
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March 23, 2015, 06:24:32 PM |
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OK, So I just sent £1000 of Bitcoin to a friend who is in Northern Namibia (just above South Africa).
He received the funds via an app on his phone - Mycelium..
The problem is we have no idea what to do now. Ideally he needs to transfer the btc to his local currency (NAD) or spend the bitcoin locally but noone there accepts bitcoin. How can we convert this money to something he can actually spend?
Thanks in advance.
It might help if you asked yourself what you are doing and why. Why does your friend need exchange commodities? Food? Rent? Real estate? To pay his/her employees? Who does he need to procure whatever it is from? Apparently he wanted the coins so you sent them to him. What's the problem? How could we possibly help you with the information you have given us? I don't think you have covered the whole thread. Look at this. As some of you guessed I didn't really send £1000 worth of bitcoin to Namibia but what I wanted to do was discuss and highlight the difficulties of using the currency in places where it would be most beneficial.
I am married into a Namibian family. My wife likes to send funds to her parents in Namibia every couple of months. She has been doing this for the last 9 years.
Currently they use one of her bankcards and she has given them her PIN. She uses a UK bank account specifically for the purpose.
So, when she decides she wants to send money she transfers money from regular account to the account her parents have a card for and just does a regular bank transfer. This works fine however she probably shouldn't have given her card and PIN to someone else.
Most people are not in a position to do this.
Prior to doing it this way or if their are some issues with the account she would use Western Union.
I showed her how simple is is to send btc if you have Mycelium installed on your phone. But we were discussing what you would do with it.
At this point LocalBitcoins is proberbly out of the question, The nearest big town is a two hour drive away. Travel to Cape Town involves a flight.
PayPal.. I don't know. I had a bad experience with it related to bitcoin previously.
I guess bitcoin just isn't ready for these communities yet.
Thanks, I hadn't. More to the point, it looks like you have fiat available and people are willing to accept it there. If so, hold on to your bitcoin. Gresham's law and all. |
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btczar
Newbie
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Activity: 42
Merit: 0
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March 23, 2015, 06:54:30 PM |
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In Namibia you can use both ice3x.com and bitx.co, both exchanges will allow clients from Namibia. Namibians can also sign up with payfast.co.za to be able to accept bitcoins on their websites, or get paid in bitcoin, and the bitcoin will be converted to Rand or Namibian dollars and put into the bank account, the fee is 1.9% to do that. http://www.bitcoinzar.co.za/buy-bitcoin-in-south-africa/ same rules apply for Namibia. |
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SirChiko
Legendary
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Activity: 966
Merit: 1000
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March 23, 2015, 08:29:28 PM |
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OK, So I just sent £1000 of Bitcoin to a friend who is in Northern Namibia (just above South Africa).
He received the funds via an app on his phone - Mycelium..
The problem is we have no idea what to do now. Ideally he needs to transfer the btc to his local currency (NAD) or spend the bitcoin locally but noone there accepts bitcoin. How can we convert this money to something he can actually spend?
Thanks in advance.
Is this an made up story or real one? If it's real then i belive there are few exchanges for sure and even if not, you can get plenty of buyers on localbitcoins.com. |
The only online casino on which i won something. I made 17mBTC from 1mBTC in like 15 minutes. This is not paid AD!
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bitcoinbot (OP)
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March 23, 2015, 08:38:37 PM |
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OK, So I just sent £1000 of Bitcoin to a friend who is in Northern Namibia (just above South Africa).
He received the funds via an app on his phone - Mycelium..
The problem is we have no idea what to do now. Ideally he needs to transfer the btc to his local currency (NAD) or spend the bitcoin locally but noone there accepts bitcoin. How can we convert this money to something he can actually spend?
Thanks in advance.
Is this an made up story or real one? If it's real then i belive there are few exchanges for sure and even if not, you can get plenty of buyers on localbitcoins.com. I wish people would stop keep suggesting localbitcoins at a way to transfer btc to cash in somewhere like Namibia. I just took a look and there is one seller for the whole of Namibia and he is actually based in London and he only accepts Western Union! |
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bitcoinbot (OP)
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March 23, 2015, 10:24:24 PM |
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In Namibia you can use both ice3x.com and bitx.co, both exchanges will allow clients from Namibia. Namibians can also sign up with payfast.co.za to be able to accept bitcoins on their websites, or get paid in bitcoin, and the bitcoin will be converted to Rand or Namibian dollars and put into the bank account, the fee is 1.9% to do that. http://www.bitcoinzar.co.za/buy-bitcoin-in-south-africa/ same rules apply for Namibia. This is interesting to know, thanks. |
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duckydonald
Sr. Member
Offline
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
Pre-sale - March 18
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March 24, 2015, 02:38:49 AM |
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I think we are missing the point here... OP's imaginary story has hit the nail on the head - truth is Bitcoin is not ready for remittance around the world, not without support of WesterUnion or MoneyGram like services able to exchange it to local currencies. Bitcoin is too new and not very good at most things it's designed for. With time this will change but for now we just have to take a punch instead of sending Namibian man to a Machete exchange (sorry, local bitcoins).
World Mitter accepts bitcoin, its bitcoin transmitter, this is what we need? The demand is not there yet, we are still int the adoption phase |
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ToshiOcean
Newbie
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Activity: 16
Merit: 0
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March 24, 2015, 03:01:08 AM |
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Go back to square one.
Have your friend send the Bitcoin back to you, and then send money in his own fiat via Western Union or whatever is the most liquid for his location.
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ObscureBean
Legendary
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Activity: 1148
Merit: 1000
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March 24, 2015, 03:52:34 AM |
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I guess the safest way would be for them to get a verified account with an exchange like Bitstamp which would allow them to convert the BTC to USD and have it transferred directly to their bank account. You can also convert BTC to USD through Virwox and then withdraw it to a Skrill or Paypal account but they have some nasty fees.
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Kprawn
Legendary
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Activity: 1904
Merit: 1074
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March 24, 2015, 08:26:24 AM |
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I guess the safest way would be for them to get a verified account with an exchange like Bitstamp which would allow them to convert the BTC to USD and have it transferred directly to their bank account. You can also convert BTC to USD through Virwox and then withdraw it to a Skrill or Paypal account but they have some nasty fees.
Well, a friend of mine solve this problem by using his family and friends in a city where there are Bitcoin Atm's.... He sends them money to their bank accounts and they buy him BTC. The opposite can also be done, if he wants to sell it.  You have to be creative, if you live in a 3rd world country. {Not saying Namibia is 3rd world} The technology will catch up, if their are a demand for it..... look what Mpesa did for Kenya.  |
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maku
Legendary
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Activity: 1288
Merit: 1000
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March 24, 2015, 08:59:45 AM |
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I guess the safest way would be for them to get a verified account with an exchange like Bitstamp which would allow them to convert the BTC to USD and have it transferred directly to their bank account. You can also convert BTC to USD through Virwox and then withdraw it to a Skrill or Paypal account but they have some nasty fees.
Well, a friend of mine solve this problem by using his family and friends in a city where there are Bitcoin Atm's.... He sends them money to their bank accounts and they buy him BTC. The opposite can also be done, if he wants to sell it. You have to be creative, if you live in a 3rd world country. {Not saying Namibia is 3rd world} The technology will catch up, if their are a demand for it..... look what Mpesa did for Kenya. I is nice that you think everything bitcoin related can be done just by being creative. But I am not so sure it is possible. After all, you need to have that bitcoin ATM, you need to have dedicated service which is available in your country without 3rd party infrastructure bitcoin is nothing more that just line of code unfortunately. |
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Vhawk23
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March 24, 2015, 09:09:04 AM |
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buy gold bars, and send it to him anyway, i almost read the title like 100000 BTCwith no £ before BTC |
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Jeremycoin
Legendary
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Activity: 1022
Merit: 1003
𝓗𝓞𝓓𝓛
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March 24, 2015, 10:44:41 AM |
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Maybe he can exchange from here https://bitx.co/za |
faucet used to be profitable |
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turvarya
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March 24, 2015, 10:48:02 AM |
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So, did OP try anything?
Reading through this thread, there seem to be ways, to make it work, even in Namibia.
It really get on my nerves, how people always just suggest, that it wouldn't work, making statements about a country, they don't know anything about.
Fun fact: Not everybody in Africa lives in a hut, with no clean water. Your educations system obviously failed you.
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vrm86
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March 24, 2015, 11:05:31 AM |
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without 3rd party infrastructure bitcoin is nothing more that just line of code unfortunately.
Only if you treat BTC as an temporary asset, that in the end will be converted back to fiat money. Point of view may change if you can spend bitcoins to buy something. |
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ChuckBuck
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March 24, 2015, 12:12:38 PM |
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So, did OP try anything?
Reading through this thread, there seem to be ways, to make it work, even in Namibia.
It really get on my nerves, how people always just suggest, that it wouldn't work, making statements about a country, they don't know anything about.
Fun fact: Not everybody in Africa lives in a hut, with no clean water. Your educations system obviously failed you.
Nope, it was merely a hypothetical question to stir up discussion. No attempts have been made yet... https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=999791.msg10857611#msg10857611 |
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GoogleBit
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March 24, 2015, 12:53:14 PM |
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Interesting discussion.
So it is still a probelm for a unbanked African, without a passport and just a mobile phone.
Hmm, I thought, that was fixed somehow...
SO BITCOIN DOES NOT WORK FOR THE UNBANKED YET !!!
...and it looks like there is no reason for them to jump in, before a new created service is providing a solution...
If you are clever, this might be a big business!
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ChuckBuck
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March 24, 2015, 12:56:44 PM |
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Interesting discussion.
So it is still a probelm for a unbanked African, without a passport and just a mobile phone.
Hmm, I thought, that was fixed somehow...
SO BITCOIN DOES NOT WORK FOR THE UNBANKED YET !!!
...and it looks like there is no reason for them to jump in, before a new created service is providing a solution...
If you are clever, this might be a big business!
Only works in Kenya and Tanzania so far: https://www.bitpesa.co/ |
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