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Kenyans Will Soon Be Able To Send Bitcoin By Phone
jfruh writes "M-Pesa is a wildly popular mobile payment system in Kenya, which allows citizens of a country with a poor banking infrastructure to easily transfer money to each other using ubiquitous dumbphones. Currently the system only works in the local currency, but there are plans afoot to allow users to transfer Bitcoin — which would help Kenyans working abroad send money back home without paying high international bank transfer fees."
Now it won't cost you so much to help them smuggle their vast fortune out of the country.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Here comes a whole new spate of 419-style "My client was a prince who died with a huge bunch of bitcoins and I need help smuggling them out of the country, please help..." scam emails.
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Having lived in Kenya for 5 years, actually MPESA, and the mobile networks in general, are much better than what's in the West. You can transfer money to anyone, anytime, with any phone. Transfer to and from your bank account. Signal strength is consistently 100% in any town of any significance. Fast Internet even in many places away from towns. PAYG calls 1c or 2c/minute, Internet 1c/Mb or less, tethering included on PAYG. Coming back to the West meant getting used to rather inferior service!
David Anderson
Or something like that.
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
Cue the Bit419 emails.
But seriously, this is a step in the right direction. The allure of Bitcoin to me isn't even the privacy (which is debatable) it's that, by not having "central" anything, it truly democratizes access to currency. Forget the hoarders, the conversions and the "banks"; this is a means to transfer money that everyone should have access to.
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
BTC is a hilariously unstable currency.
I have witnessed it halve, then double, then more then halve, then slightly double in the span of a single month. Absolutely nothing is guaranteed in BTC, and to make things even worse the exchanges (which you need to turn your BTC into something usable out in the real world- sorry, but ordering pizza and black market goods is hardly considered "useful") are notoriously unreliable as well. There is literally nothing propping up the system and protecting it from evaporating overnight.
Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting experiment, but it's just that- an experiment, and to a certain extent a very clever money making scheme for those who got in early. I spent over a week researching the potential profitability of investing in some serious ASIC mining hardware- and in the end, while it might have been profitable to invest... I just couldn't convince myself that the market or the exchanges were trustworthy. Actually turning BTC into IRL currency (which BTC is not) is a total hit and miss. Basically, BTC can't be trusted for anything more then hobby cash.
So I guess if you're desperate enough, maybe it'll be a useful tool for these folks, but I'm not holding my breath for the inevitable story about how all the poor Kenyans lost their hard worked money and made all their families starve because the market crashed and Mt. Gox decided to evaporate overnight and run away with whatever cash they had.
Migrant workers, indeed the poor generally, typically get ripped off by people like Western Union, since they have little choice.
So, this could be a good thing, as long as some sudden exchange-rate swing does not wipe out the credit.
(Although transfer times should be short, reducing the voltility risk).
The cost of buying the bc credit needs to be reasonable, too.
Of course, once this gets popular, Govs will cry "OMG terrerists!!" and regulate it to death or just shut it down...
The summary made it sound like the M-Pesa system was going to add support for bitcoin somehow ("there are plans afoot to allow users to transfer Bitcoin"), but from TFA, it's just an unrelated third party offering a service that lets you buy bitcoin and pay via M-Pesa.
Essentially some guy put up a website where you can buy bitcoin.
Of course, once this gets popular, Govs will cry "OMG terrerists!!" and regulate it to death or just shut it down...
Too late. They've already tried in the US.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
For a long time I've been wondering who the heck is paying Slashdot to post news about Bitcoin? Common, guys, it isn't such an omnipresent concept to be on our daily feeds....
Bitcoins won't be stored on cellphones (I mean the private key), but centrally in the service that provides the ability to trade them. This is a single point of failure, and I really don't like this.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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without paying high international bank transfer fees
This is VERY interesting. In my country banks work hard to steal every penny from anyone who needs to send or receive money from abroad
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
And the price of bitcoin goes up!
As an American, I crapped my pants and hit the fetal position when I saw you used the "T word"
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Migrant workers need to learn to shop around. Western Union rips off a lot. Moneygram rips off a little bit less. Banks tend to rip you off like you're made of money, but if you shop around you may find that one bank that, for whatever reason, doesn't. I've managed to find a bank in the UK that charges flat 9.95 for International transfers, while every other bank charges one of 17, 25, or 35 per transfer. Sure, transfers take a few days, but do you really need money that fast? If I need fast money across Europe, I go with the bank that charges flat 17, and the money is in the destination account in half an hour (yes! I'm not making it up!). And I get a great exchange rate in the destination country, compared to what I get in the source country.
The main problem is that most migrant workers are not used to use their brains. They saw a larget paycheck and went there to work, not to think. Maybe I'm biased, but workers don't understand the world beyond "I work, I get money, I spend money, I live - repeat" easily. That's why they get kicked in the nuts so often.
You require reeducation. The proper response for americans when they hear the word "terrorists" is to uncontrollably urinate. Defication is completely outside the allowed response reaction protocol.
Can you please show up to the Reeducation center nearest to you as soon as possible. Bring something soft to bite down on and shave the back of your head for easier placement of the electrodes.
Thank you citizen.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I think some of it may be that they are in an alien country where they don't really know the society and don't really speak the language. It is reasonable that they may just take the easy choice and not operate with the skill and sophistication of a native.
Is that why bitcoins are up 20%? Some day I'll jump through all the hoops to pick some up... some day....
ponzi pyramid scheme.
My name is Prince Abdula, and I am in a situation now that I believe you could help me with. I am moving to the US but need help to transfer 1.5B Bitcoins out of my country. If you could kindly give me your cell phone number, I will transfer the Bitcoins to your account and will give you 1.5M Bitcoins in exchange for your help....
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
The BBC reported, I cant remember what large bank but I think it was in the Euro Zone, saying they would no longer be accepting bitcoins at there bank(s). This hurts Kenyans abilities to send money back home to family, ect.. The bank claims they do not want to get caught up in an money laundering scams, they (I believe) also said they were afraid of being charged with laundering money by the state or officials.
How much are fake birth certificates? ;-)
Table-ized A.I.
i think my bank charges $40 U.S. to send money to another country. it is cheaper to send my relatives a check than to wire them money. The cost of using Western Union and Moneygram is a little cheaper compared to the cost of using a bank though.
+1 Interesting
Dubious. I'll wait for the press release.
I would just like to clarify that Kenyans aren't responsible for the email scams. So whatever email you get its probably not from a Kenyan. :)
Why not one of the newer options like Litecoin that has faster transaction times? Litetree litecoin exchange is one of the new sites that can buy and sell the litecoins.