Hello fellow Steemians and Steemgigers. Today I would like to discuss with you why it is very important that we will be able to convince Coins.ph and Coins Exchange in including Steem/SBD in their platform. For the benefit of those who do not know these platforms let me give a brief introduction about them.
Image source: logos taken from respective sites Coins.ph, Coins Exchange and Steem.
What are Coins.ph and Coins Exchange (CX)?
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According to Wikipedia:
Coins.ph is a financial services platform founded in 2014 by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Ron Hose and Runar Petursson in Metro Manila, Philippines… Coins.ph uses digital currency as a low cost gateway to banking, extending the reach of financial institutions beyond their existing branch infrastructure to the 300+ million who are unbanked in the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia
Source: "Coins.ph." Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org, 27 March 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins.ph. Accessed 17 April 2018.
According to Coins.ph:
Coins.ph is Southeast Asia's leading digital currency wallet. Since 2013, we have enabled customers in the Philippines to purchase bitcoin directly from their mobile phones. Over 2 million customers use our services to buy and sell bitcoin, send remittances, and make online payments, even those who do not have access to financial services
Source: About Coins.ph, CX. Cx.coins.asia Acessed 17 April 2018.
As we can see from the sources above Coins.ph have been around for awhile now, depending on what you want to believe it has been around 4-5 years and have established itself, at least in the Philippines, as the dominant bitcoin wallet provider around in terms of number of users and popularity.
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Coins Exchange is a new cryptocurrency exchange platform manage by Coins.ph. According to their website:
The Coins Exchange, or CX, is a digital currency exchange product by Coins.ph. We operate in the Philippines and serve as a platform where buyers can connect with sellers and exchange digital currency at prices determined by the market...Our goal is to make digital currency cheap and fast.
Source: About Coins.ph, CX. Cx.coins.asia Acessed 17 April 2018.
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As mentioned above it is simply a market place where users can buy and sell their cryptocurrencies. Currently there are only 5 cryptocurrencies that is supported in the platform: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). All of these cryptocurrencies are paired (can be exchange directly to) with the Philippine Peso.
Who can register in these platforms?
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Speaking from experience anyone whose age is 14 or above can register for an account in Coins.ph. Prospective users who are 18 years old and above can register and get verified by using any government issued id. Minors that are above 14 years old must submit a scanned copy of a permission letter from their parents or guardian.
On the other hand, Coins Exchange prospective users must have a Coins.ph before they can participate. The platform is currently in the closed beta testing phase. Only a select few Coins.ph are currently using the platform. There is a strong indication though that soon the Exchange will be available to all, not only Coins.ph users.
Why is Coins.ph and Coins Exchange are necessary
For a person whose main source of income comes cryptocurrencies having a financial service that Coins.ph provide is very valuable. If there are no such service available it would be difficult for anyone that is living off cryptocurrency to have it converted to Fiat (Paper money like Philippine Peso) that you can easily use to buy products and services. Take for example the rewards we get in the STEEM platform. We get rewarded in STEEM and STEEM Backed Dollars (SBD) if there is no way we can change these cryptocurrencies into Fiat directly or indirectly it will render it useless. Not unless of course when people starts to accept STEEM and SBD as a direct medium of exchange for products and services. But for now we need to exchange these cryptocurrencies into Fiat to have real world use.
Market of STEEM
[Image Source](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/#markets)
Market of Steem Backed Dollars
[Image source](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem-dollars/)
Currently, most Steamians convert there rewards, STEEM and SBD through exchanges like Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex, Openledger and blocktrades. I myself use these different exchanges also. To be able to get my rewards from STEEM applications like steemit blogging platform, I have to send it to an exchanger, convert it to another crypocurrency that can be sent to Coins.ph, Send the converted STEEM or SBD to Coins.ph using Bitcoin or Ethereum, convert the cryptocurrency to Pesos using their internal exchange in Coins.ph then finally send the converted crypto to myself via the many Cash-Out options available in Coins.ph.
For a cryptocurrency investor like myself that wants to invest in STEEM or STEEM Backed Dollars, Coins.ph is an invaluable financial tool where I can buy Bitcoins or Ethereum with peso through their vast Cash-in options. In fact I can buy bitcoins 24 hours a day via an electronic kiosk found in virtually all 711 stores national wide.
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Of course as an investor I would always want to get the best value for my money. There is where Coins Exchange comes in. The rates in Coins.ph to buy bitcoins or Ethereum is NOT the best rates to be honest. These rates are dictated internally by Coins.ph and the spread (difference of buy and sell) of prices between buying and selling are not that desirable. Upon Coins Exchange's release there will be another venue by which cryptocurrency investors like me will be able to Buy or Sell cryptocurrency at better rates since the rates will be dictated by market forces not Coins.ph. There will also be better choices to choose from as there will be 3 more available cryptocurrencies such as: Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP). There are also indications that there are more to follow cryptocurrencies to be added.
Coins.ph is not only a cryptocurrency wallet that lets you store cryptocurrencies and a portal where you can convert them to fiat. It is actually a "Business package." First it has a lucrative referral program by which you can earn PHP 50 or roughly around $1 for every referral that registers under your referral link. What is awesome about this referral program is that your referral will also get the same amount of reward (50 PHP or $1) when they verify their account.
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It is also a loading station where you can send can "top-up" your mobile numbers. In fact I have made some money providing this type service to my fellow Steemians that wants to "top-up" their mobile phones. This is due to the fact that when you use coins.ph portal it will give you 10% cash backs for all Top-ups.
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You may also earn through bills payment as Coins.ph give you cash backs also for every unique bills you pay monthly with the following restriction:
A bill is considered unique if the billing account number has not been previously paid for using Coins.ph in the current calendar month. Users who pay at least five unique bills per week (Monday to Sunday), of at least 100 PHP per bill, will earn a 100 PHP rebate for every five unique bills paid, to be credited to their PHP wallet on Wednesday the following week.
Source: Pay your bill, Coins.ph. app.coins.ph/bills-payment Acessed 17 April 2018.
What will be the advantage of having STEEM and SBD included in Coins.ph and Coins Exchange?
There are many advantages for having STEEM and SBD included in Coins.ph and Coins Exchange. Not only for (Filipino) Steemans but for Coins.ph and Steem Inc. as well.
As I have already explained earlier, moving your STEEM and SBD from your steemit internal wallet to Philippine Peso can be a complicated and cumbersome task. If we be able to convince Coins.ph management to include STEEM and SBD in their wallet it will greatly reduce the effort, time and cost of moving STEEM and SBD. Having it included in Coins Exchange will enable Steemians another source of augmenting their STEEM and SBD income through buying and selling of STEEM and SBD. Although there are other exchanges there are only a few and even lesser that are accessible to the international community.
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For Coins.ph it will be able to tap into STEEM which powers the largest and most active crypto powered social networking site today— STEEMIT and its ever growing variants that have emerged from it (Dtube = Youtube, Utopian = Gitbhub, ChainBB = Reddit, Steemgigs = Fiverr, Zappl = Twitter, Steepshot = Instragram ). With the advent of Smart Media Tokens which will enable it tokenization capabilities similar to Ethereum, one can expect more STEEM related applications in the near future. STEEM and SBD is currently being traded in just a few crypto exchanges meaning competition from other exchange is not that stiff. Moreover, It will be able to tap on STEEM technology that has one of the fastest and highest capacity in terms of transaction speed and volume, user friendly and more importantly very secure. I have lengthily discussed its superior attributes to other cryptocurrency specially bitcoins in my articles "STEEM has so much explosive potential (value-wise)" and "STEEM has the Technology to Stop Bitcoin from Killing the Planet"
For STEEM community it will help in it's ultimate goal of mass adaptation. Coins.ph is the most popular and widely used cryptocurrency wallet in the Philippines. Currently it is operating in the Philippines and in Thailand and has plans of expanding it operations in other neighboring countries around South East Asia. With the impending release of Coins Exchange (CX) we might see this expansion very soon. In other words the STEEM community will benefit from the additional exposure Coins.ph will be able to bring to the platform. Moreover STEEM is just being traded in a very few exchanges and an addition exchange may bring additional venue in which can stimulate demand for it cryptocurrency and have a positive effect on the price of STEEM benefiting everyone in the STEEM platform.
Why the Philippines and South East Asia?
Quite frankly the Philippines is the perfect fit for Coins.ph and STEEM applications.
According to a BBC news report
On paper, the Philippines has all the ingredients of an emerging tech tiger: a fast-growing middle class with money to spend; a 100-million strong, largely English-speaking, population addicted to social media; plus low labour and operating costs.
Source: "Could the Philippines be Asia's next tech tiger?" Aurora Almendral. www.bbc.com, 30 May 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27379715. Accessed 17 April 2018.
According to Peter Fabian, Internet Entrepreneur, "The Philippines is a good test market". Which is echoed by one of the founders of Coins.ph, Ron Hose:
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If you can solve banking for people in the Philippines, you can solve it for 500 million people in South East Asia
Source: "Could the Philippines be Asia's next tech tiger?" Aurora Almendral. www.bbc.com, 30 May 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27379715. Accessed 17 April 2018.
The news source is about 4 years old and indeed the Philippines is leading the Asian economies as it continues to be one of the fastest growing in Asia and have topped it several times from 2014-2017. With stronger ties with China who is benevolent to the current administration and keeping close ties with its old allies like the U.S. (at least in the Presidential level), it seems that the Philippines is well in path to its intended trajectory: as one of the Asian tiger economies. On a more recent news, World Bank seems to verify projections made 4 years ago as data shows that these momentum will carry on well into 2020.
The Philippines will continue to be the fastest-growing economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)...The World Bank expects the country’s economy to have grown by 6.7% in 2017, a pace that will be sustained until 2019 before slowing to 6.5% in 2020.
Source: "PHL to remain among SE Asia’s fastest-growing economies — WB." Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan. bworldonline.com, 11 Jan 2018, http://bworldonline.com/phl-remain-among-se-asias-fastest-growing-economies-wb/. Accessed 18 April 2018.
These were the primary reason why Coins.ph chose the Philippine as a test market back in 2013-2014. Simply put we have the numbers, resource, conditions and mindsets which are representative of the region. Moreover, Filipinos have a very welcoming attitude towards foreigners that can not be said to other Asian country. There is also less language barrier as the majority of the Filipinos understands and speaks English.
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The addiction of Filipinos to social media just cannot be overly stated. In fact there was a study done back in 2011 when Facebook was only around 2-3 years in operation, states that the Philippines garnered the highest Facebook market penetration worldwide making it the moniker "Facebook Capital of the World" :
Asia dominates the world’s biggest social networking markets according to research from blog 24/7 Wall Street who compiled a list of countries where Facebook penetration (usage per population) is highest.The Philippines tops the list with 93.9 percent of the nation reportedly signed up to Facebook
Source: "Philippines named social networking capital of the world." Jon Russell. asiancorrespondent.com, 15 May 2011, https://asiancorrespondent.com/2011/05/philippines-named-the-social-networking-capital-of-the-world-indonesia-malaysia-amongst-top-10/#XAIEVl7uGxliaC4e.99. Accessed 18 April 2018.
With the proliferation of Smartphone use in the country with market penetration that is estimated to be around 70% by the year 2018:
Smartphone penetration in the Philippines is pegged at 40 percent for 2015 and by 2018, that figure is seen to rise to about 70 percent. The report noted that in three years, smartphone subscription penetration is expected to exceed the Philippine urban population
Source: "Smartphone use in PH seen rising to 70% by ’18." Miguel R. Camus. business.inquirer.net, 13 Dec 2015, http://business.inquirer.net/204077/smartphone-use-in-ph-seen-rising-to-70-by-18. Accessed 18 April 2018.
This only goes to show you that anything that is related to social media, Filipinos are ready and willing to give it a try. Not only to use by themselves but also quite vigorous in inviting friends, families and even strangers to the new platform. This is an amazing feat in itself given the fact that Filipinos as the slowest internet connection inn the region as well as the most expensive. They are willing to pay just to do social networking. What more if they get paid to do they usually do in other social networking sites for FREE.
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Another important information that we should know about the Philippines is a phenomenon called "Brain-drain" as the best and brightest of the working force sought employment outside the country for higher paying jobs. It can be said that the Philippines is a nation of Migrant workers. In fact a significant percentage of the Philippines' Gross Domestic Product comes from the remittances of those migrant workers.
Source: "Philippines: Remittances, percent of GDP." The Global Economy. www.theglobaleconomy.com, Undated, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Philippines/remittances_percent_GDP/. Accessed 18 April 2018.
Remittances is a multi-billion dollar business in the Philippines. To put this into the proper perspective let us show the top 3 remittances around the world
Source: "Remittance." Index Mundi. www.indexmundi.com, 1 Jan 2018, https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx. Accessed 18 April 2018.
Data shows that Philippines comes in third place worldwide in terms of money remitted to to the country. 32.8 Billion U.S Dollars (USD) in total remittances in 2017. Only to be outdone by China and India which has 65.4 Billion USD 62.9 Billion USD respectively. This is an amazing feat at bot China and India has roughly 10 times more people than the Philippines as shown below.
Source: "Country Comparison Population" Index Mundi www.indexmundi.com, 1 Jan 2018, https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx. Accessed 18 April 2018.
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Lastly, and the most important aspect, in my opinion, is that the Philippines has one of the most cryptocurrency friendly government around the world. As a matter of fact the number one cryptocurrency wallet in the Philippines has received a license from the Philippine Central Bank that is normally given to traditional financial institution like banks.
The new license allows Coins to accept and hold customer funds, and extend the functionality of its online and offline payment services. The company already has a very active customer base using its existing payments, remittance, air-time, and bill-pay services
Source: "Coins.ph gets central bank license." Melissa Luz T. Lopez. bworldonline.com, 13 Dec 2015, http://bworldonline.com/coins-ph-gets-central-bank-license/. Accessed 18 April 2018.
Final thoughts and Suggestions
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We can do our part by participating in this awesome and noble initiative. Just make a video expressing our desire to have STEEM/SBD be included in their platform: If you need additional guidance on this effort you may also read my article here for a shorter version and a template/guide on how to do this:
I am hoping the STEEM leadership and developers will also be able to help in this initiative . I don't see why not we should push for this as the Philippines (100 Million + population) is one of the countries in the world who is early adapters of social media like Facebook. Not to mention its possible 32.8 Billion U.S Dollars remittance industry. And with the upcoming release of the exchange that is targeting 600 Million users in South East Asia the opportunity is too huge to be taken lightly. Don't take my word for it just check out this article from forbes:
That is it for now my dear steemians I hope you are enlightened by the article that I have just wrote.
LET'S GO AND MAKE IT HAPPEN. WE BRING STEEM TO THE MOON!!!
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