BitShares Forum

Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: luckybit on October 27, 2014, 10:53:20 pm

Title: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: luckybit on October 27, 2014, 10:53:20 pm
For the traveler who might want to send money to their families?

BitUSD has an advantage here because it's cheap, it's fast, it's secure, and the user can be anywhere on planet earth.

You could be in China and send money home to your family in seconds. I think remittance is the 'killer app' of Bitshares X.

Any plan for that? If there is then it might make sense to get more currencies up and running. Which currencies are most popular for remittance?

Quote
The US has been the leading source of remittances globally in every year since 1983. Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Switzerland have been the next most significant senders of remittance since 2007.[15]
Asia[edit]

Overseas Chinese remittances
A majority of the remittances from the US have been directed to Asian countries like India (approx. 66 billion USD in 2011), China (approx. 57 billion USD), the Philippines (approx. 23 billion USD), Bangladesh (approx. 21.5 billion USD) and Pakistan (approx. 16 billion USD)[16] and (see here 1 2). Most of the remittances happen by the conventional channel of agents, like Western Union, Al Ansari Exchange,Xpress Money, UAE Exchange, Intel Express and MoneyGram. However, with the increasing relevance and reach of the Internet, online and mobile phone money transfers from companies such as Remit2India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittance#By_region
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: donkeypong on October 28, 2014, 12:05:01 am
Bump. BitUSD's biggest demand could come from outside the United States.
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: kuvira on October 29, 2014, 12:43:46 am
bump,

we need a remittance team

Quote
The market for initial public offerings will look for its next big winner in Xoom Inc., a fast-growing money-transfer service for immigrants in the U.S. looking to send money to their home countries.

IPOs have gotten off to a fast start in 2013. Companies raised more than $4.8 billion in January on U.S. exchanges, the most in the first month of any year, according to Dealogic. Another $525 million has been raised so far in February. Each of the past four weeks has brought at least one new issue that remains 20% or more above its debut price.


San Francisco-based Xoom is looking to raise as much as $86.3 million and notch a starting market value as high as $468 million.

Xoom operates Xoom.com, a money-transfer business that lets people living in the U.S. use Web-connected computers and smartphones to send money internationally.

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The market for so-called remittances is poised to grow: Since 2004, the global market has expanded at a 12% annual rate, to $513 billion in 2011, according to the World Bank, and it is expected to grow an additional 7% a year through 2015.

Xoom offers cash transfers to 30 countries outside the U.S, though transfers from the U.S. to the Philippines, India and Mexico represent about three-quarters of its business. Nearly a quarter of its transactions are sent through mobile devices.

"You no longer need to walk to an agent location during business hours, fill out forms, queue up, and wait another 10 minutes for the teller to process the transaction," said James Friedman, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group LLP, which isn't helping to underwrite the IPO. "With Xoom.com, you can send money 24/7, within minutes, at a smaller cost."

The company generates revenue primarily from transaction fees. While its revenues so far represent a scant to 2% to 3% of those of industry leader Western Union Co. , competitive pricing and consistent growth could help it build market share, Mr. Friedman said.

Xoom's fast growth has attracted investment from venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital LLC, which will retain a roughly 18% stake after the offering, according to the Xoom's filings. Other early investors will keep roughly 40%.

Xoom's revenue grew 68% in the first nine months of 2012, to $57.8 million. The company hasn't reported a profit in any full year and booked a net loss of $4.3 million for the nine months that ended in September, as marketing and customer-service costs increased.

The stock is slated to list Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker XOOM.

Also on tap in the coming week is ConnectOne Bancorp Inc., a community bank chain founded in 2005 and based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

ConnectOne, formerly known as North Jersey Community Bancorp Inc., operates eight branches and holds a loan portfolio made up largely of commercial-real-estate and business loans. Profit grew 28%, to $6.1 million, during the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier.

Shares of the last two bank IPOs haven't fared well. Miami's Capital Bank Financial Corp. and Colorado's National Bank Holdings Corp. both are trading below their September IPO prices.

ConnectOne plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Tuesday under the ticker CNOB.

Two medical-test makers could make it to market in the coming week. Cancer Genetics Inc. will look to raise as much as $40 million by listing on the Nasdaq. The early-stage company develops tests using DNA for diagnosing hard-to-detect blood, ovarian and cervical cancers. The Rutherford, N.J., company is to start trading on the Nasdaq Wednesday under the ticker CGIX.

A holdover from last week may again make an approach to the market, according to bankers working on the deal. AutoGenomics, of Vista, Calif., makes genetic tests used to determine a predisposition toward, or the presence of, diseases and other medical conditions. The company is looking to raise as much as $66 million on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker AGMX.

Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: emski on October 29, 2014, 07:58:54 am
Overtake the Western Union. I like that.
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: kisa on October 29, 2014, 10:19:26 am
Overtake the Western Union. I like that.

perhaps lets forget Western Union - this is dinosaur and is not the real competition for remittances. the real competition is running fast and includes lots of startups for mobile payments, comparable with ApplePay, Vodafone Wallet etc. etc. there are hundreds of developers have been working on such platforms for a number of years, so we have to be mindful the market is crowded...

http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21601624-and-no-end-new-ways-pay-your-bills-end-monopoly (http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21601624-and-no-end-new-ways-pay-your-bills-end-monopoly)
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-18 (http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-18)
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: gamey on October 29, 2014, 10:30:42 am


remittance is great, but you're going to have to setup something in a foreign country to convert bitUSD -> localCurrency.  Perhaps there are places where the laws aren't super strict, but it is likely protected like in the US.  So we could easily go from US->anywhere with the onramps.. but the destination is the problem.  I wonder if Western Union makes their affiliates sign some exclusivity agreement.  That might be the key.  Call up every WU shop in some country that is heavy in remittance and ask them to consider supporting the system.  Put the transfer code/password in the memo and you're pretty much there, except those guys have to be able to convert it back into their local currency... meh  So you basically need an offramp in all the destination countries.

Also remittance doesn't mean people will store value, they'll only use it to move money so we just get transaction fees which are low to begin with.  So maybe this idea isn't so great ?
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: kisa on October 29, 2014, 10:48:15 am
For storing value proposition in bitAssets BTS needs to be established, not a startup phase. For now we can expect either speculative invest into BTS or idealistic holding/transacting in bitUSD as a sign of decentralised movement support (or whenever people think BTS is overvalued). Alternatively at current stage, we would have to offer incentives for holders of bitAssets out of BTS beneficiaries.

For remittances though, the bitUSD holding period is short and the amounts involved are regular and not large, thus acceptable systemic risk for each individual transfer - this would keep certain bitUSD volume in useful circulation. So if BTS offered or joined some infrastructure for on/off ramps, then bitUSD utility in terms of value stability, speed, and low fees would become a winning proposition. No local currency needed to start with, people in those countries are happy to hold USD value, and those countries where cash USD circulation is legal should be targeted first, in terms of remittances.

Countries where people aren't allowed / restricted to hold USD is another case alltogether. This is indeed about store of value / access to stable currency. This might also become valuable proposition, but bitUSD would be in competition against BTS itself here. bitUSD is rather stable value, and offers yield, but it should be compared to longer-term investment BTS risk/return characteristics. The marketing focus for bitUSD then should be people looking to hold stable value over time periods over short/medium time periods of a few weeks or months... For those who want a chance to participate in potentially huge BTS appreciation we shouldn't try to sell bitUSD but offer BTS.
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: starspirit on November 16, 2014, 06:28:22 am
I happened to come across this Australian company looking for capital to expand its remittances software platform. It made me think that if there are there platform providers like this, they might be the ones to target with bitUSD in this industry, as they already have the legals and infrastructure in place to deal with the regulatory issues.
https://www.australianinvestmentnetwork.com/business-proposals/trc-technology-15-201575
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: BTSdac on November 16, 2014, 07:09:57 am
yes the  big marketing of bitusd is international payment
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: donkeypong on November 16, 2014, 05:26:46 pm
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=11125.0
Title: Re: Bytemaster, is there a plan for promoting remittance?
Post by: eagleeye on November 17, 2014, 08:41:26 am
bump,

Is John Underwood scheduled for the mumble server?