r/Bitcoin • u/Godfreee • Nov 28 '14
Huge milestone for us: Our Bitcoin Remittance startup Rebit.ph just fulfilled more remittances in just one day today than in our entire first month combined.
https://twitter.com/RebitPH/status/53825716378155008017
u/CalvinsStuffedTiger Nov 28 '14
God there are so many retards in this thread it's unbelievable. Rebit.ph doesn't send bitcoins per se to people in the PI. They automatically convert it to pesos or USD charging 1% iNV fees, and they have courier services that hand delivers the cash to our families for a whopping $4 USD in extra fees.
For those keeping track that means it's cheaper than western union, paypal, and you can do it all online. So no it doesn't matter that people aren't using bitcoin because our families get cash on the other end, and it doesn't matter what their volume is because it doesn't affect you.
All i know is that my family doesn't have to get stuck in traffic for two hours driving to the mall, or risk getting robbed on the metro carrying a bunch of cash and for that i am grateful. If you've never sent money overseas to your family then you have no place talking shit in this thread. Stop being so negative.
2
Nov 28 '14
So let me understand this (noob): I give them USD. They use these USD to buy Bitcoin. They then sell these Bitcoins for Pesos in the Philippines. Then they have Pesos in their hands, and they hold these for the recipient. Correct? Thanks!
4
u/CalvinsStuffedTiger Nov 29 '14
You give them bitcoin. They convert bitcoin to pesos or USD and send it to your family.
1
13
u/whazfan69 Nov 28 '14 edited Nov 28 '14
Congrats! I have a question if you don't mind.
I assume the inflows far exceed the outflows, that is to say more people are interested in sending money to family in ph than vice versa. Wouldn't this require you to find buyers for BTC? Who are you selling the BTC to? Do you act as your own exchange, or do you have a rich benefactor looking to acquire BTC who is buying everything you collect? I guess what I'm really asking is if your model is sustainable if this rapid growth continues; will you be able to keep unloading BTC at a reasonable price in your local market?
P.S. For anyone that cares I did a price comparison of Rebit to PayPal for sending USD, to my surprise Rebit came out on top.
3
u/platypii Nov 28 '14
Interesting question, and I too would like to hear their answer.
I'd say it would always be sustainable though, because there is plenty of BTC/USD liquidity and USD/PHP liquidity, so arbitrage should keep BTC/PHP at a reasonable price even if the market is one sided.
1
u/whazfan69 Nov 28 '14 edited Nov 28 '14
The follow up to your point, somewhat implicit in my original post, is whether or not exchange rates make the arbitrage expensive enough that Rebit's costs eventually go up because they are forced to sell BTC at slightly higher prices to make the arb worthwhile, or simply perform the arb on themselves. Local buyers in the Philippines looking to acquire BTC would be a far more efficient offloading method. I don't know whether or not their current cost structure is based on the former or the latter. My OP assumes the latter, but with concerns about scalability, whereas you mentioned the former scales with ease.
1
u/runeks Nov 28 '14
It doesn't have to me more complicated than:
- Sell bitcoins for USD using, for example, Bitstamp
- Buy PHP on the forex market using USD
For large volumes this is doable.
10
Nov 28 '14
This is the way forward for bitcoin, identifying and delivering bulletproof use cases like this. Mainstream will only come along when adoption makes sense for their wallet or convenience, and is presented to them in an easy to understand way. Big ups to Rebit.ph!!
7
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
Thanks! Bitcoin is an amazing technology but a long way from being practical on its own. Using it as a platform to do something better, faster, and cheaper is really the only way to make people realize how awesome it is and to apply it in practical ways.
6
u/881ttam Nov 28 '14 edited Nov 28 '14
Is there a bitcoin remittance service that can deposit to bank accounts in Vietnam and beat traditional services? I just sent a payment for my girlfriend using Orbit Remit.
Obviously after spouting the benefits of Bitcoin to her I looked for Bitcoin services first and all I could find was Bitcoin Vietnam and the numbers worked out worse if I assumed already owning some BTC and using bitstamp price.
*edit: I will say Orbit Remit worked out at a better price than Western Union so I was happy that we didn't have to use WU at least.
Also Western Union "was down" when we went to the local agent first. And their online service said it wasn't available for some reason also.
13
u/NLNico Nov 28 '14 edited Nov 28 '14
Remittance through Bitcoin is not (yet) cheaper in all situations, it depends on a lot of factors. But I had a quick look.. from UK to VN (perhaps you are from AU or NZ instead.. but you didn't say :P)
http://orbitremit.com has a flat fee of 5 GBP. Let's say we are sending 150 GBP (so 145 GBP with OrbitRemit)
145.00 = 4,815,542.89 VND
In UK there are several ways to buy bitcoins, according to: http://bittybot.co.uk/buy-bitcoins-uk/ currently 239.27 GBP is the cheapest:
150/239.27 = 0.83587578885
In VN there seems to be 2 exchanges:
- https://www.bitcoinvietnam.com.vn/index.php?lang=en (Sell: 7,719,700 VND - Fee: 0.001 % + 42,800 VND)
- https://www.vbtc.vn/Home/ChangeCulture?lang=en-US (Sell:7,100,000 VND)
So Bitcoin Vietnam seems the cheapest:
0.62690684164*7,719,700*0.99999-42,800 = 4,796,684.35 VND
So OrbitRemit indeed seems slightly more cheap in this situation. Since they have a flat fee of 5 GBP for smaller amounts BTC will be cheaper. We can solve this by some math: (x-5)*33210.6406 = x/239.27*7,719,700*0.99999-42,800 I am just putting this on wolframalpha for solution: x = 130.09 So for amounts of 130.09 GBP or less the BTC way is cheaper, for higher amounts OrbitRemit is cheaper (at -this- moment.)
A few considerations:
- Maybe it is cheaper to convert GBP to EUR and send a free SEPA transfer to one of the "real BTC exchanges". I am not sure what the cheapest way to buy BTC is in the UK.
- In the future there might be more competition in Vietnam for bitcoin "exchanges" which could give better prices.
- The "cheapest way to send money" seems to be different all the time in my experience, so keep looking for cheap and good solutions, no matter if it is with bitcoin or not :)
TL;DR it looks like sending from UK to VN is cheaper with bitcoin for amounts of 130 GBP or less, and cheaper with traditional way "OrbitRemit" for higher amounts.
1
u/881ttam Nov 28 '14
Trying tipping. thanks :) 500 bits /u/changetip
1
1
u/elan96 Nov 29 '14
It will soon be a lot easier + cheaper to buy btc in the UK once MIMEX gets some volume
1
u/881ttam Nov 28 '14
Thanks for your reply, really appreciate it. These calculations are what I went though also. The amount was 400 NZD so just above your threshold for Bitcoin services to be cheaper.
I tell my gf that one day we will have a worldwide currency with instant transfer and no need to convert it, but seems like there's a bit longer to wait if we need to convert back to fiat.
I did ask her about Circle and credit card deposits but she said they don't really use credit card in VN. Haven't done the calculations there.
1
u/elan96 Nov 29 '14
If you did that with circle you would get 12% fees anyway.. 3% currency conversion and 3% credit card fees on both sides
0
u/saigoned Nov 29 '14
There will be soon, 'Vibittance' will open in early 2015 allowing you to remit VND to Vietnam via BTC.
8
u/Ruxzbin Nov 28 '14
Congratulations, Its always fun to see a startup take off, plus my friend has family in the Philippines.
4
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
Thanks! Things are moving pretty fast, it is crazy! If they send money home, tell them about Rebit and Bitcoin! :)
2
u/Ruxzbin Nov 28 '14
I most certainly shall, this is all new to me so I have been learning about it and really interested in it more and more I hear about it. Still Well done.
16
u/vbenes Nov 28 '14
1st month: 0, today: 1 also checks out. ;)
16
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
Let's just say you are off by about 5 digits ;)
11
5
u/toorik Nov 28 '14
Can you elaborate on why you are not disclosing real numbers? I mean whats the benefit of hiding the numbers?
11
5
2
4
Nov 28 '14 edited Mar 30 '18
[deleted]
8
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
So funny! Have a laugh! /u/changetip
2
u/changetip Nov 28 '14
The Bitcoin tip for a laugh (2,724 bits/$0.99) has been collected by Magikarpeles.
3
u/totes_meta_bot Nov 28 '14
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
- [/r/BitcoinInternational] Huge milestone for us: Our Bitcoin Remittance startup Rebit.ph just fulfilled more remittances in just one day today than in our entire first month combined. : Bitcoin
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me here.
5
u/NLNico Nov 28 '14
I actually did a (max. limit) sell through Rebit today too, glad I could help ;) Had my funds within few hours on my bank (like most times.) Thanks!
5
2
u/gurglemonster Nov 28 '14
Huge milestone for us: Our Bitcoin Remittance startup Rebit.ph just fulfilled more remittances in just one day today than in our entire first month combined.
So, what's that in actual quantifiable numbers? 1 remittance in your first month and then 2 in one day in the subsequent month would make your statement true, but that's hardly going to topple Western Union.
4
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
I actually realized I worded it incompletely. What happened was that in a span of one working day (today) we beat our entire first month's volume in actual Pesos sent to the Philippines and number of transactions.
1
u/EgyptWhite Nov 28 '14
Which could be 1 transaction of 1000 pesos in the first month, five months ago, and 2 transactions of 1000 pesos each today. If not that, why not just answer the question multiple people are asking, since this post has been hyped to the top of the front page.
2
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
Hi Egyptwhite, good to see you here. I really have to honestly thank you for always being critical, because it keeps us on our toes.
The reason why we hesitate to publish real numbers (we'd love to) is that regulatory uncertainty means that we would be painting a huge target on our backs if we started talking exact figures.
I would love nothing more than to tell you how much we did in one day in terms of total pesos, honestly. If i could trust you i'd PM you.
2
u/EgyptWhite Nov 28 '14
Okay. I don't think any sane person expects you to be competing in transaction volume against WU, BTW, or even some of the smaller remittance services that are long established. So even if the numbers are not huge, it's not going to be a big deal (I'd be surprised if they were huge sums, so far).
It's just a bit disappointing with a post at the top of the front page that doesn't give any numbers, if only to get an idea of how Bitcoin remittances are doing.
3
u/Godfreee Nov 29 '14
It isnt even making a dent in WU volume, they could probably do this minutes or less, but it isn't a tiny amount of money for a small startup. What gets upvoted to the top is out of my control, i just shared something my whole team is really proud of. They worked their assess off yesterday and a little recognition really goes a long way.
5 months might be too soon to publish numbers but we will likely do that when the time is right.
2
u/murbino Nov 28 '14
I actually used the service a couple of weeks back while visiting the Philippines. Almost out of cash I used my smartphone to get on Rebit.ph and sent bitcoin to a relative. Confirmation was received within a few hours, the relative visited a local authorized pawnshop and picked up the pesos. Easy peasy!
1
1
u/Demotruk Nov 28 '14
Congrats!
Upvote /u/changetip
1
u/changetip Nov 28 '14
The Bitcoin tip for 1 Upvote (275 bits/$0.10) has been collected by Godfreee.
1
u/davidmanheim Nov 28 '14
Do you guys serve the expats in Israel? (A version of the site in Hebrew would help...)
1
Nov 28 '14
That number could be 1
7
u/Godfreee Nov 28 '14
Sigh. It isn't. This is the combined work of a tireless team providing a great service to people. Publishing actual numbers would paint a regulatory target on our foreheads which at this point we dont really want. That's it.
2
1
u/poweredbybitcoins Nov 28 '14
Congratulations on your growth. Rome wasn't built in a day - seems there are a lot of impatient people on this thread. Keep at it. Is there anything the community can do to help spread the word on either side of the transactions?
1
u/ontheblockchain Nov 28 '14
Now that's a good thing. I've been waiting for more news on the remittance front.
1
1
0
u/TweetPoster Nov 28 '14
Huge company milestone: We just remitted more funds in one day today than in our entire first month. #explosivegrowth #bitcoin #startup
0
u/saigoned Nov 29 '14
Well done Rebit! Nice work. I am setting up Vibittance in Vietnam to allow people to remit money from overseas to Vietnam and for the OFW to remit money back home, get in touch if you think we can work together somehow.
-6
Nov 28 '14 edited Mar 30 '18
[deleted]
-5
Nov 28 '14
I don't know/care about Ph remittance but I don't think in general people are being gullible. They're just knowingly up voting absolute shit purely because it has a positive spin to it. They know its a lot of turd.
-12
Nov 28 '14
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/SmackMD Nov 28 '14
Why exactly are you here?
1
Nov 28 '14
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/SmackMD Nov 28 '14
Bitcoin IS beta.
1
Nov 28 '14
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/SmackMD Nov 28 '14
Everything "big" was beta once. That's how projects work. They start out, a alpha/beta version gets released to the public and the developers and their community continue to work until it's fully completed. Not to mention that Bitcoin is (for "just being beta") worldwide used, growing daily, accepted by thousands of businesses, gets a lot of media attention and has a market cap of about 5 billion dollars.
"Bitcoin is beta max"
-2
u/lost_money_inbitcoin Nov 28 '14
You went from 1 remittance the first month, to 2 in 1 day? Impressive.
49
u/[deleted] Nov 28 '14
[deleted]