Indonesian and Filipino Startups Striving to Bring Bitcoin to the Masses
As Singapore is emerging as a regional Bitcoin hub and attracting more and more venture capital investments from the West, its neighbors, Indonesia and the Philippines, are following the city-state's pace and initiating ambitious projects striving to bring Bitcoin to the locals. Indonesia's leading Bitcoin exchange Bitcoin Indonesia recently announced a partnership with payment processor iPaymu, the largest chain of franchised convenient stores in the country. The deal will enable residents to buy bitcoins over the counter at over 10,000 'Indomaret' convenience stores. "We found a number....
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Indonesian FinTech startups have attracted global venture capital giants, such as the Japan-based venture capital firm CyberAgent Ventures. Earlier this month, the firm announced that more than half of their new US$50 million fund will be dedicated to Indonesian startups. Steven Vanada, Vice President of the firm announced: “We are very bullish, especially on Indonesia. In the next few years, I think we will see a tipping point.” The VC fund will most likely focus on bitcoin startups like Blossom that utilizes an innovative technology such as the blockchain to solve problems of locals that....
Filipino Bitcoin startup Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI), has raised an additional US$100,000 as part of its ongoing seed funding round. Through this investment, serial entrepreneur Joe Maristela hopes to encourage other angel investors to consider putting money into the Philippines’ burgeoning tech industry. Commenting on the new fundraising, John Bailon, CEO and co-founder at SCI, told CoinTelegraph: "It’s refreshing to have an investor like Mr. Maristela, who maintains a proactive involvement with us and shares our passion for Bitcoin and what it can do for the Philippines. His....
Personal data of 55 million Filipinos, including their fingerprints, was recently hacked and posted online, but the international media don't seem concerned. All we hear is Putin, Cameron, Abitabh Bachchan and the juicy Panama Papers. People's privacy seem to be of no concern. Does privacy of the masses matter and who is responsible for it? The leak of data from the Philippines Election Commission follows other large government leaks, from Turkish Residency Database to the US Office of Personnel Management files. In March 2016, there was a massive breach in the database of the Philippines'....
Just a week ago, Filipino congresswoman Kimi Cojuangco introduced a bill in the Filipino House of Representatives that would create a government-backed digital currency that would serve as an official medium of exchange for domestic online payments. This digital currency, known as the "e-peso," was proposed as part of the E-Peso Act of 2014. The e-peso that would be at par with the country's official currency the Filipino Peso would be used as legal tender. Of interest to the bitcoin industry is that in its current form, the bill would require the Filipino central bank, the Bangko Sentral....
Podcasting 2.0 has the potential to be the first “killer app” outside of using bitcoin as a sound savings vehicle, likely bringing bitcoin to the masses.