Using bitcoin to avoid excessive banking fees and delays
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During my market research, I have noticed that it would be quite easy to buy bitcoins in Cambodia, because you've got travelers with bitcoins who want dollars, and because there are lots of overseas Cambodians who want to cut down the expense of remitting money to their relatives in Cambodia. They would buy bitcoins and sell them in exchange for a local Cambodian transfer of dollars.
But then again, at that point I would be sitting on a growing pile of bitcoins.
I could obviously sell them on a bitcoin exchange and withdraw the cash there, but that would drag a bank wire into the fray and punish me with exorbitant fees and -- adding insult to injury -- often a bad exchange rate too.
There must be people in Cambodia who need to pay bills or even imports abroad and who have their own bank accounts abroad. For example, Americans could simply dump the bitcoins at coinbase.com and draw the dollars to their US bank account, while avoiding all fees and delays that they would have incurred if they had wired using a bank.
For many countries (but not all) there are rapid and well-functioning solutions to transfer money using bitcoin and avoid banking fees, unfavourable exchange rates and lots of delays.
Do people here regularly wire money back home to pay bills and invoices?
Maybe there are lots of people in that situation but who do not use this opportunity because they just don't know about it ...
Bitcoin is not stable enough to use as a day to day currency IMHO.
Just compare a bitcoin graph versus a swiss franc graph.
U onto something my friend,
interested in learning more..
It's primarily the lack of education/marketing of bitcoins in Cambodia and let's not forget credit cards aren't even widely accepted.
ANX is launching the world's first Bitcoin retail store in Hong Kong (28th Feb) and a number of countries already have either installed or have orders for various Bitcoin ATMs.
We simply need to get interest levels up, not only as a means to avoid bank fees, but market as an "alternate investment" product and target those SMEs that import products.
Would be more than happy to discuss further.
I hope it catches on. The banking fees are ludicrous to change AUD to USD. Cost me an extra $300 in bank fees alone to buy my motorbike!
Mt. Gox exchange blames hackers for huge bitcoin losses, files for bankruptcy
Bad news for some bitcoin holders. Mt. Gox, once the world’s biggest exchange for the virtual currency, says it has “lost” around 350 million euros worth of them.
Mt. Gox Chief Executive Mark Karpeles blamed the loss on hacking into its faulty computer system.
He spoke as the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in Japan.
Wearing a suit instead of his customary T-shirt, Karpeles bowed in contrition and apologised in Japanese at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, blaming his firm’s collapse on a “weakness in our system”, but predicting that bitcoin would continue to grow.
“First of all, I’m very sorry,” he said. “The bitcoin industry is healthy and it is growing. It will continue, and reducing the impact is the most important point.”
Angry investors have been seeking answers for what happened to their holdings of cash and bitcoins on the unregulated Tokyo-based exchange, which froze withdrawals early in February and deleted its website on Tuesday 25th February.
Mt. Gox said the exchange, used overwhelmingly by foreigners, had lost 750,000 of its users’ bitcoins and 100,000 of its own.
That represents about seven percent of the estimated global total of bitcoins.
Many bitcoin market participants have said Mt. Gox’s problems were specific to the company and were caused by what they said was a lax attitude by Karpeles, while bitcoin itself – free of any central bank control – is still viable.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that, unlike conventional money, is bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control. Its value has soared in the last year, and the total worth of bitcoins minted is now about $7 billion (five billion euros).
http://www.euronews.com/2014/02/28/mt-gox-exchange-blames-hackers-for-hu...