Is Bitcoin Cash Support Coming Soon for the Philippines?

We’ve reported in two separate articles how the biggest bitcoin companies in the Philippines are planning to support bitcoin cash in the future. So what has happened since then? We’re pretty sure it won’t be arriving any time this year, but what about next year?

Coins.ph
- UPDATE June 2018: Coins.ph now supports BTC, ETH, and BCH
While there was no official announcement, Coins.ph CEO Ron Hose mentioned on Twitter how they were looking at Bitcoin Cash as a way to ease up transaction cost in their network.
The tweet was on November 15, 2017. On December 11, 2017, Mr. Hose backpedaled and mentioned thatย a lot of things have changed since his original tweet and are now looking for alternatives to lower transaction cost.ย The tweet did not mention if they were still considering Bitcoin Cash or not.
On December 21, a Twitter user asked Mr. Hose if they were still prioritizing Bitcoin Cash and he said yes.

This is a new development and who knows, soon Coins.ph might finally integrate Bitcoin Cash in its network.
SCI Ventures
In the past, SCI Ventures opened a poll asking its users which coin should they prioritize next. The choices are Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and Ripple.
Recently, Mr. Miguel Cuneta of SCI Ventures mentioned on Reddit that he’s testing the company’s Bitcoin Cash implementation. This probably means that Bitcoin Cash Support is really in development. We may not know when this will be launched but atleast it’s a good indicator of what’s to come hopefully next year.
Why are people considering other coins than bitcoin?
Up until early this year and even before the bitcoin boom these past few weeks, it is relatively easy, cheap, and fast to facilitate bitcoin transactions. That changed when bitcoin reached all-time highs after all-time highs. I personally experienced this when trying to buy a Steam game using bitcoin. I ended up trying to use litecoin because the transaction was faster and definitely cheaper.
How to buy coins from the Philippines
There is no direct way to buy any other coins from the Philippines apart from bitcoin. You can however trade your bitcoins for other coins using foreign exchanges such as bittrex. Here are our two articles:
- How to send your bitcoins from Coins.ph to Bittrex
- How to buy ethereum, litecoin, and any other coins from Bittrex
Overall
Consider the nature of bitcoin transaction fees right now, as tabulated by the website Bitcoinfees. As long as this does not change, many users of bitcoin, the ones it claims to help by eliminating the middleman and easing transaction fees, will complain. If you choose to hodl and not spend your bitcoins, however, then this issue might not be a problem for you.