About Rebit.ph (taken from their website):
Rebit.ph is a service of Satoshi Citadel Industries, a Philippine-based holding company for Bitcoin-related ventures. It is our mission to further the growth of the Bitcoin network in the Philippines, by providing universal access to otherwise inaccessible financial services, enabling unencumbered participation in the internet economy regardless of the size of your bank account, and fostering innovation without permission from central authorities.
Okay that’s great, but does the Philippines need a Bitcoin based remittance service?
The Philippines is the second largest recipient for remittances in Asia, with a total of US$23 billion transferred in 2013. The lion’s share of these remittances is enabled by conventional banks and money transfer agents, which charge hefty fees for international transactions. Rebit aims to provide a comparable service at a significantly lower rate by leveraging the superior process that the Bitcoin platform enables. We strive for total transparency in both our business model and service fees, and do not hide our profit margins within inequitable exchange rates. Our delivery options include forwarding to most local banks, as well as the most popular pawnshops and payment centers.
So again Bitcoin is revolutionizing the industry, potentially putting popular services like Western Union and Xoom bankrupt when Bitcoin really becomes mainstream. In comparison to the aforementioned companies, Rebit charges a 3% fee for remitting, on top of fair exchange rates. That’s it. Take a look at this graph comparing services.
The entire process is a breeze as well. The sender just fills out a form deciding how much he/she would like to send and to whom to send. The sender can choose from a wide array of delivery options from the fastest option literally taking minutes to complete and the slowest option taking 36 hours, which is still light years away from what Xoom and Western Union can do for the price.
Today I’m here with Miguel Cuneta, which also answered questions for Bitmarket.ph and Bitstars.ph as well as Luis Buenaventura, the product lead on the project.
1. History of Development?
We’ve been working on Rebit.ph since May 2014 and released the alpha product in July.
2. How does Rebit.ph tie in with your other ventures, such as Bitmarket.ph?
Rebit.ph has a complementary relationship with everything else in the SCI family of brands. We’re still working on the glue layer that will bring everything together, but for now, suffice to say that Rebit.ph and Bitmarket.ph both bring BTC into the country, but from different sources.
3. How does the Process work?
It’s a very straightforward process. The sender indicates how much they want to send in PhP and to whom they want to send it. We do a real time calculation of how much that is in Bitcoin, and they pay for it with their Bitcoin wallet. Then, on the receiving side we coordinate with the recipient and transfer local currency to them. The turnaround time takes less than 24 hours in most cases.
4. How does the service compare to popular services for money remittance such as Xoom or Western Union?
We spent a lot of time researching prices and fees and we can confidently say that we provide a cheaper service than either WU or Xoom. Many of these traditional remittance providers use inequitable exchange rates in order to increase their profits, and we don’t do that. We follow the exact market rate for the given hour of the day, and are completely transparent with how we charge for our service.
5. Can the ability to pick up money in minutes be achieved with cash? Bitcoin is still a niche market and I’d assume many people would like to stick with what they know.
If the recipient happened to be close to our Makati office, they could literally walk up to our doorstep within 10 minutes of payment confirmation and we would have the cash ready for them. Other delivery methods will take a little longer as we have to manage logistics concerns first.
6. Current Status?
We launched on June 30th and got our first remittance within the hour. The entire team has been closely monitoring every new user and we’ve been working very hard to keep improving our service. We’ve already pushed out two improvements to the user dashboard and exchange rates table within a few days of launching and have a lot more lined up.
7. Future Development plans?
Without going into too much detail, we’re working on ways to incentivise people to spread the word about our service, and build up awareness. Many Filipinos abroad will stumble on to our site while looking for alternatives to traditional remittance providers and they may not initially know what Bitcoin is. It’s our job to explain to them how the technology works, and help them learn how to leverage it to save money.
Photo Source: Miguel Cuneta
For more information: https://rebit.ph/
