Because Bitcoin is a digital currency one could be mistaken for assuming it’s only useful in technologically advanced countries. But if anything, it could be that third-world countries which rely on remittances from migrant workers will be among the first to see widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Take for instance the Philippines, a country plagued with corrupt politicians, insane traffic jams, floods, and sometimes unbearable heat and humidity. Who would have guessed that it’s now attracting foreign Bitcoin investors and local Bitcoin innovators are now making their mark in the digital world?

Satoshi Citadel Industries Inc. is a venture capital firm focusing on funding Bitcoin startups in the Philippines. It currently has six verticals, Bitmarket.ph, Coinage, Rebit, Bitstars, Prepaidbitcoin.ph, and Bills Ninja, that are bringing Bitcoin closer to the masses as well as making it easier to use and acquire.

Of the said verticals, Bitmarket.ph is making headway in making Bitcoin accessible to small merchants with its recently introduced service TXTPay. In a country where almost everyone you see in the streets has some form of a mobile device in their hands, it’s easy to get people’s attention when you put the word “text” in your product’s title. Texting is a normal activity for Filipinos, especially when telecommunication companies offer unlimited texting for 24 hours, to all networks, for only about $0.22.  So when you tell someone you can pay for things just by texting, people are sure to be curious.

There are less than 100 online and brick-and-mortar retailers in the Philippines that accept Bitcoin payments at the moment, but with TXTPay that may soon change as it will allow small stores in the remotest areas to start accepting Bitcoin easily.

How it works

Unlike other merchant-friendly Bitcoin services, TXTPay doesn’t require an Internet connection, a smartphone or even a special tablet as it appeals to sari-sari stores or small convenience stores found in side streets that are not likely to have Internet connections.

Making a payment is as easy as sending a message to someone after the merchant has signed up for Bitmarket’s services.. The Merchant simply sends a text message to Bitmarket’s number, 29290724, which contains the price in Philippine pesos and a note or the name of the item, for instance 300 Load – in the Philippines, when you hear the term load, it usually refers to prepaid credit on their mobile device.

Bitmarket then replies with the real-time BTC conversion of the item’s price, in this example, that would be about 0.02 BTC. The BTC amount is relayed to the customer who then scans the merchant’s QR code which may be displayed in the store in form of a poster so the customer can pay for the item using BTCs in his or her Bitcoin wallet. Bitmarket then sends the merchant a confirmation text that the payment has been made.

This solves a lot of dilemmas for sari-sari store owners, such as not having enough change on hand when a customer pays with large bills; they are less likely to be targets for thieves since they will have less cash stored on premises, and it beats using credit/debit card readers which may go offline at any given time.

“Nobody really thinks about the “sari-sari” stores or bazaar and pop-up stalls, when it comes to electronic cash payments. With Bitmarket.ph’s TXTPay, we have established the SMS point of sale system to allow and enable all these smaller merchants to accept Bitcoin payments at a lower cost,” John Bailon, Co-Founder and Chief Technological Officer of SCI said of TXTPay.

Bitmarket.ph is also the first Philippine Bitcoin company to bring a Bitcoin ATM to the country and what makes its machine interesting is that it’s quite mobile. The company can bring the machine to Bitcoin gatherings to hopefully entice more people to start using the cryptocurrency.

photo credit: Free Grunge Textures – www.freestock.ca via photopin cc