I'm not well-versed in web3 technology, but it does seem like a great use case for remittances and international transfers compared to more traditional methods like wires. Have you seen many web3 companies take off in the remittance space?
There are a few companies that are now targeting cross-border payments, but not only confined in the remittance space.
Technically speaking, anyone with a crypto wallet can do remittances themselves (as long as the recipient has a wallet too), but it has a few issues:
(1) UI for recipients are not easy to set up for people who aren't already using crypto
(2) Recipients either need to offramp stablecoin to their bank account, or they need to be able to spend them i.e. merchants need to accept stablecoins
(3) Some jurisdictions charge tax for receiving crypto e.g., India
(1) is easier to fix – our sister company Thirdpay (www.thirdpay.io) will be launching wallets directly attached to stablecoins, so you can simply send money to an email address instead of a crypto wallet address.
(2) is more difficult – it depends on offramp or local merchants. An interesting option is Bitrefill, which allows users to spend crypto to buy giftcards of merchants from Amazon to more local options, but the latter's availability is highly dependent on geographies. Others like the recently acquired Helio was integrated with Shopify to expand the reach.
(3) is the toughest to solve as it's a policy choice.
Do you see particular remittance pairs (origin country & recipient country) that would particularly benefit from stablecoins?
Thanks for the detailed response! I was just curious - I know of web2 FinTechs that focus on remittances and usually start with US -> Mexico, Philippines, or India.
Would definitely have a look at Mexico and the Philippines! India has a crypto tax (30%) but not sure if that applies to remittance too - will check that out :)
I'm not well-versed in web3 technology, but it does seem like a great use case for remittances and international transfers compared to more traditional methods like wires. Have you seen many web3 companies take off in the remittance space?
There are a few companies that are now targeting cross-border payments, but not only confined in the remittance space.
Technically speaking, anyone with a crypto wallet can do remittances themselves (as long as the recipient has a wallet too), but it has a few issues:
(1) UI for recipients are not easy to set up for people who aren't already using crypto
(2) Recipients either need to offramp stablecoin to their bank account, or they need to be able to spend them i.e. merchants need to accept stablecoins
(3) Some jurisdictions charge tax for receiving crypto e.g., India
(1) is easier to fix – our sister company Thirdpay (www.thirdpay.io) will be launching wallets directly attached to stablecoins, so you can simply send money to an email address instead of a crypto wallet address.
(2) is more difficult – it depends on offramp or local merchants. An interesting option is Bitrefill, which allows users to spend crypto to buy giftcards of merchants from Amazon to more local options, but the latter's availability is highly dependent on geographies. Others like the recently acquired Helio was integrated with Shopify to expand the reach.
(3) is the toughest to solve as it's a policy choice.
Do you see particular remittance pairs (origin country & recipient country) that would particularly benefit from stablecoins?
Thanks for the detailed response! I was just curious - I know of web2 FinTechs that focus on remittances and usually start with US -> Mexico, Philippines, or India.
Would definitely have a look at Mexico and the Philippines! India has a crypto tax (30%) but not sure if that applies to remittance too - will check that out :)