In this episode, we interview the founder and Chief Operating Officer of Bitwage.co, Jonathan Chester, across the miles from his home in Sunnyvale, California. His company, Bitwage, is a startup Silicon Valley company that will change the way Filipino freelancers — and maybe in the future, even employees — accept payments from their clients or employers.
I myself had used Bitwage and was amazed at the speed of which I received my money, a matter of one day from my U.S. client to my Philippine bank account. Amazing! The good thing also was that I was not charged for transferring my money to my bank account because the service is still in beta as of this writing. However, according to Jonathan, once Bitwage has officially launched, the transfer fees will then be implemented, but will still be way lower than traditional remittance services like Western Union, Money Gram and even PayPal.
That’s not all, freelancers without a bank account (or the “unbanked”) can still get their cash from local remittance services like LBC, 2Go, G-Cash and Cebuana Lhuillier, or pay their bills via Bitwage’s local e-wallet service partner, Coins.ph. Here is a screenshot of my Bitwage.co dashboard:
Further, we also discuss the digital currency phenomenon, Bitcoin, and the Blockchain concept, and how Bitwage uses it to power its remittance facility. Here are the key takeways from the show.
Takeaways
- What it’s like inside the Facebook headquarters.
- How he and his friend, John Lindsay, CEO of Bitwage, started Bitwage.co.
- Why he left a high paying job in Oracle to focus on Bitwage and how was it like working for Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
- What they discovered about the frustration of freelancers when it comes to accepting payments.
- Why people shouldn’t be afraid to fail.
- What made him passionate about bitcoins despite being skeptical about it at first.
- An explanation of the Bitcoin system and the Blockchain technology in layman’s terms.
- The public and private ledger analogy for bitcoins.
- What a bitcoin miner is.
- Why they chose to initially target Philippine freelancers.
- How Bitwage leverages the bitcoin blockchain system.
- Why freelancers should choose Bitwage over other remittance services.
- Is Bitwage secure?
- What’s next for Bitwage.co.
Links
- Oracle
- Larry Ellison
- PeopleSoft
- TED Talk on Bitcoin
- Bitcoin – watch the simple video explanation here. Thanks to Christine Aguilar of coins.ph for :
- The Blockchain – the public ledger. You can see it moving real time!
- Coins.ph
- John Lindsay – CEO of Bitwage.co
- Uber
- Bitwage.co
- @bitwage
- jonathan@bitwage.co
- paolo.huelgas@bitwage.co
Quotes
“Our first local currency corridor that we’ve built for freelancers is from U.S. to Philippines — meaning that US dollars come in and Philippine Pesos go out in the other side. ”
“I was so passionate about Bitwage. I was convinced that what we were doing was going to make people’s lives better. And that what we were doing was going to bring a lot of value – to freelancers, employers, employees.”
“Create your own success, whatever you believe your own success is.”
“The real answer to how currency has value is that people believe that it has value.”
“The reason why bitcoin has value is because people believe and trust that the mathematics behind bitcoin and behind the blockchain are not going to fail and believe that they provide more efficiency than other systems out there.”
Are You Ready to Become a Freelancer?
If you are really serious about becoming a freelancer, you should first start with the tools of the trade.
I will make your life easier by handing you more than 30 of the latest and greatest applications, software and websites that I, and even some of the most amazing freelancers, use on a day-to-day basis to become a more productive freedom entrepreneur.
Get “The Most Awesome Apps, Tools & Resources” Ebook Now!
Are you struggling to book clients because your business is in a crowded market?
Are you having difficulty presenting yourself and your business to the online world and even to the real world?
Do you want to turn from an unknown freelancer or entrepreneur into a well-respected influencer like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Manny Pacquiao or Bo Sanchez?
The answer? You need a powerful and irresistible Personal Brand!
Why don’t you join our 3-session in-depth workshop called The Personal Branding Workshop for Freelancers and Solopreneurs!
Register NOW and get 20% off on the learning fee. Buddy rates are also available.
Please visit www.freelanceblend.com/personalbranding.
You May Also Like
FBP 049: The Good and The Bad of Being an OFW with author Anne Quintos of Abroad Me
FBP 048: Ask Marv – How to Become a Networking Ninja Even If You Are an Introvert
FBP 047: On Being a Podcaster, an Author and a Huppy Yuppie with Mighty Rasing
FBP 046: The Filspirational Freelancer – Karl Balingit
FBP 045: How to Use an E-Wallet Service like Paypana.ph with Alejandro Patino
FBP 044: How to Earn from Your Rakets with Lyle Jover of Raket.ph
FBP 043: Winning Tips from The Freelancer.com Team and The Fast 50 Rising Online Jobs
FBP 040: Top 5 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Attend Events (No Matter How Small)
FBP 039: On Becoming the Top Freelancer Nation with Evan Tan of Freelancer.com