Why Bitcoin Faces an Uphill Battle in the Remittance Market
One of the most routinely cited use cases for bitcoin is in the international remittance market - the financial sector worth over $500bn a year that specializes in facilitating transactions across borders at a markup that reduces the total money sent by 9% on average. Given the high cost the remittance services, it's no surprise that many in the bitcoin industry take its potential in the space for granted. After all, its underlying technology offers anyone the ability to conduct low-cost, peer-to-peer payments without restriction. Due to the power of the technology, it can sound like the....
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Bitcoin remittance provider BitPesa has officially launched its beta test. The Kenya-based company offers a 3% cut-rate fee, and is aiming to target the country's expats abroad who send $1.17bn home annually, according to The Wall Street Journal. Users send their bitcoin to BitPesa, which then converts the amount into the local Kenyan currency and sends it on to the recipient. The service promises same-day delivery and no hidden fees. BitPesa aims to disrupt a traditional remittance market that often imposes high costs on those wishing to use remittance services. For example, the cost of....
Cinco de Mayo 1862 - Mexico's army came to an unlikely victory over the French at the Battle of Pueblo. Today, Mexico's army of Bitcoiners are fighting to revolutionize the financial system. Mexico is a key market for Bitcoin because Mexico is the fourth largest destination for remittance payments, totaling about 22 billion USD in 2013 according to the World Bank. Currently remittance payments are packed with fees in all parts of the process; using Bitcoin can drastically reduce these fees. Remittance payment fees from the US to Mexico are some of the lowest in the world. Fees of payments....
FastCompany’s report revealed that overseas remittance totaled $429 billion in 2016. Some of the largest Remittance markets include China and the Philippines. Already, bitcoin startups have begun to dominate the remittance markets in the two countries, with the Philippines leading bitcoin remittance innovation. Both domestic and international remittance is a massive market within the Philippines. Companies such as Lhuillier and Palawan operate thousands of branches throughout the country, with deeper market penetration in comparison to international remittance companies such as Western....
Bitcoin ETFs are a hot topic in the crypto space. It has been an uphill battle as investment firms struggle to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve the first bitcoin ETF in the country. The push for approval has intensified in the past couple of months with more institutional investors throwing their […]
It takes time to for an innovation to take off, especially one that is as large as an alternative global decentralized digital currency. January 2017 marks eight years since the first Bitcoin block was mined. In monetary systems, eight years is not a long time. An 8 Year Uphill Climb. When looking at how this past year went for perhaps the most....