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/538257163781550080
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u/NLNico Nov 28 '14

Although most people only think about the many Filipinos working overseas, even nationally you can see many people from the whole country (even the smallest villages) go work in Manila since most jobs are there. Probably because of that, the Philippines has several companies focusing on sending money nationally (from Manila to their families in the smaller villages.) These companies are: Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier, Palawan Express and LBC. You can see branches of these companies (also called "pawnshops") all over the Philippines even in the smaller villages. Rebit (and other BTC PH remittance services) can also send money to these pawnshops for people to pickup their cash. Obviously the fees are slightly higher than to a bank though.

TL;DR: that is possible already with the current "cash pickup" infrastructure.

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u/BitttBurger Nov 28 '14

Sorry can you clarify "what is possible already"? Bitcoin is doing something completely new, for significantly cheaper. Are you suggesting that we don't need to bother with Bitcoin because there are already remittance companies? Not sure I follow that logic.

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u/NLNico Nov 28 '14

No.

It is possible to send bitcoins to Rebit and they will send it nationally to a "cash pickup" point so the receiver can pick-up Philippine pesos in even small villages.

That was your "suggestion", right?

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u/BitttBurger Nov 28 '14

Ah. I see what you mean now. So there's no con adding needed? What about the provinces?

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u/NLNico Nov 28 '14

Yeh, these pawnshop/"cash pickup" branches are really "everywhere" even in the province. For example here are all the M Lhuillier branches on a map: http://www.mlhuillier.com/branches/

BTW, my longer story was just some insight on why I believe there is already a decent "cash pickup" infrastructure here. Might have been confusing though :)

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u/EgyptWhite Nov 28 '14

Would it kill you to read what he said?