In the Philippines where millions are unbanked, cryptocurrency seems to be a panacea until you realize that there are only two on and off ramp exchanges that are approved to operate by the central bank of the Philippines (Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas). These are Coins.ph and PDAX (Philippine Digital Asset Exchange). There may be others that I don't know but it does not matter as only these two have a usable and currently operating mechanism to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrency to another cryptocurrency and fiat.

Of course you can always use a peer to peer hand off money from someone you meet online BUT crypto-fiat trading is way more secure with an approved exchange. Binance does not have a license to trade in the Philippines and for now serves only as an escrow app for peer to peer exchange aside from other features like liquidity pools, swaps, etc.

Among the cryptocurrencies, BTC, BCH, XRP, ETH and its various ERC-20 tokens like AXS, BAT, DOT, MANA, MATIC, SAND, to name a few, are available to Coins.ph, while the same list is available via PDAX with the addition of ADA, AVAX, SOL, and XLM.

Both of the approved exchanges works using a mobile app which serves as a custodial wallet. You can convert fiat (Philippine Peso only) to cryptocurrency and vice versa via these apps without additional fess other than conversion rates fees between crypto and fiat.

Payments Using Cryptocurrency in the Philippines

Between Coins.ph and PDAX, only Coins.ph allows you to pay cryptocurrency to others using QR Code, crypto address, or to a cellphone number of a Coins.ph user.

If the receiver or the merchant is a Coins.ph user, payment is fast because Coins.ph will act as a liquidity pool exchange for any of the supported cryptocurrency vis-a-vis Philippine Peso. Funds will reflect to the other account almost in real time without the need for confirmation time.

If the receiver or merchant uses a non-custodial wallet, paying using cryptocurrency will be subjected to the respective blockchain's confirmation time and gas fees. And this is where BCH shines among the rest.

Since 2018, I never encountered any brick-and-mortar business that accepts cryptocurrency here. There are online businesses that accepts cryptocurrency, and I did had a business before the pandemic where I accepted cryptocurrency. No one paid me in crypto within 3 years of making it available as a payment option even with 10% discount.

Adoption of cryptocurrency in the Philippines is growing but it is still a super minority that focuses on trading.

Bitcoin Cash as the Most Usable and Accessible Cryptocurrency

From my experience, I never used BTC using Coins.ph because the transfer time is too long and the fees can go up to $1.50. My average BTC confirmation time is 30 minutes. Contrast that with BCH where the highest fee is just $0.01 and the confirmation times is 5 minutes on the average.

While XRP is available in Coins.ph, I can only receive funds but not send due to unresolved bug. Of course no one can use ETH and its related tokens because gas fees are stucked at $15-20.

This leaves the Philippines with only one usable and accessible cryptocurrency for payments and transfers - Bitcoin Cash.

How About MoneyGram and Stellar?

Recently, MoneyGram partnered with Stellar to make USDC transfers available to the Philippines and to convert it to Philippine Peso seamlessly during cash-out. It uses Stellar as the network to make these transfer almost in real time. However, fees are still higher compared to cryptocurrency transfers. The last time I tried, $100 will cost approximately $5 of fees plus any conversion rates fees.

Also, there's a KYC needed that includes an identification card and home address validation.

This is definitely not in the spirit of cryptocurrency despite using Stellar's blockchain technology. But for those who are very familiar with MoneyGram and trusts it as a remittance partner, it may soon be the preferred way of transferring USD in and out of the Philippines.

Adoption Challenges

I saw other BCH users doing their own campaign in their local vicinity. I wanted to do the same but given that we can only off ramp BCH via these 2 exchanges without incurring higher fees from other methods, it's very difficult to promote BCH without mentioning the other two exchanges and not sounding like a salesperson for them.

How can I say to them that they need to create a BCH wallet and address, accept payments, then have the hassle of transferring it to Coins.ph then convert it to Philippine Peso at a lower price due to conversion? There is no incentive for them.

Literacy about cryptocurrency in general is also low, with some sectors and localities not even have basic understanding of using these apps altogether. Internet access is also a problem in other localities.

And the fact that most are unbanked, moving any money in the digital space is a challenge and centralized only to the two exchange I mentioned above.

Final Words

Despite the challenges and limitations, Bitcoin Cash seems to be the only viable solution for those who want to use cryptocurrency to pay and transfer cash. Given it has the head start of being usable and accessible, any adoption campaigns for cryptocurrency in the Philippines should include Bitcoin Cash.

People may not fully understand all the blockchain and cryptocurrency dynamics. They may only know Bitcoin among others. But by the time they use it for payment and see the fees, or even experience how slow it is first hand, they will gravitate to use the next recognizable cryptocurrency - Bitcoin Cash.

After all, Bitcoin Cash is made to be the peer-to-peer digital cash.