On Feb. 6, San Francisco-based Bitcoin services startup ZipZap announced the launch of cash-for-bitcoin services at 28,000 retail locations in the U.K., including omnipresent convenience stores such as Spar and Tesco Express. To buy bitcoin, buyers connect a ZipZap account to their bitcoin wallet, then print or load to their smartphone a scannable barcode that they take to a ZipZap affiliate location. A clerk scans their barcode, then accepts their cash payment. Bitcoins arrive in their wallets within minutes through one of ZipZap's partner bitcoin exchanges. Fees for the service are currently £3.95 (about $6.50), with a maximum £300.00 ($500) worth of bitcoin purchased.

    The service provides a complement to recent adoption by major online retailers likeOverstock.com (OSTK) and Tigerdirect.com -- it is now, at least in the U.K., as easy for the non-tech savvy to buy bitcoin as it is to spend it. ZipZap's ultimate goal, though, is not just to help curious first-worlders buy bitcoin, but to provide both cash-in and cash-out capabilities globally. "We're in the process of making our brand trustable, at least for the cash-in process, and then we will launch the cash-out process," says Joaquin Moreno, ZipZap's regional manager for Latin America. "Once [buyers] get the bitcoin, they can use them online, or they can send it to their family around the world," says ZipZap CEO Alan Safahi. By providing on- and off-ramps to the global, nearly-free Bitcoin network, ZipZap would create a remittance system to rival those of Western Union and Moneygram.

    Bitcoin advocates regularly call out the remittance industry as a near-monopoly profiting from migrant workers and the underbanked. Safahi is clearly a man on a mission in this regard: "You help the poor get out of poverty by reducing their remittance cost," he says, citing global remittance volume of more than a half trillion dollars a year, and fees that average 9% and peak at 25% or more.

    But some question the accuracy of those often-cited fee rates, and the potential of bitcoin systems to change the remittance landscape. "I know every single location where you can pay in Africa, and that's nonsense. The cost of sending money to Africa is about 6%," says Manuel Orozco, senior fellow specializing in remittances at the Inter-American Dialogue. Western Union's fees are higher -- a quick online search shows that sending $500 from Florida for pickup in cash in Kenya costs $39, plus a more than 3% exchange rate spread taken by Western Union (WU), for a rate of about 11%.

    Orozco and others cite compliance with Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations as a large irreducible cost of remittance service. In fact, "regulatory compliance is spiking," says Josh Strauss, Portfolio Manager of the Appleseed Fund, which is long on Western Union. "Compliance will squeeze [Western Union's] 2014 profits by something like 8%," but will also keep competitors out, he says. Strauss says that once bitcoin-based competitors have to meet the same compliance standards, which now only affect bitcoin at the point where it is exchanged for cash, they will have little if any price advantage. There are other risks and costs to bitcoin as a remittance vehicle, including that of holding highly volatile bitcoin even briefly in the process of a transfer, and at least the perceived risk of fraud and lax security in a developing system. Ultimately, Orozco is skeptical of claims about major disruption. "There is an assumption that money transfers today are very expensive, and that a model like bitcoin will lower the cost. I think that assumption is inaccurate."

    Western Union CIO David Thompson focuses on established players' compliance and security advantages. "A compliant system ... requires a lot of control. It requires a network that is enabled for compliance." While bitcoin uses a peer-to-peer cryptographic model to ensure the security of transactions over the internet, Western Union fully owns and controls a global network of dedicated wires. It also has dedicated retail outlets, while ZipZap projects are operating through partnerships with existing retail financial servicers. According to Joaquin Moreno, this will allow ZipZap to offer its service in more locations for a lower cost than companies with dedicated infrastructure.

    Thompson did state that "when we get to the point where customers are asking for this service [bitcoin remittance], we would look at it as enabling yet another currency." He says the Western Union network is capable of "movement of any currency type ... We can move [bitcoin] across our wires to the receiving entity." He did not specify whether this might function through some sort of token or derivatives system, since bitcoin proper can only be transferred over the Bitcoin network. Thompson was unable to comment on possible trends in Western Union's pricing in advance of Tuesday's earnings call.

    今年2月6日，位于旧金山、提供比特币服务的初创公司ZipZap宣布将在英国的28,000家门店提供现金兑换比特币服务，其中包括Spar和乐购Express（Tesco Express）这样无所不在的便利店。购买比特币的顾客需要将ZipZap账户与比特币钱包关联，然后把一个可以扫描的条形码打印或加载到智能手机里，带进ZipZap的门店。柜员会扫描条形码，之后接受顾客的现金支付。几分钟内，比特币便会通过ZipZap兑换比特币的合作伙伴打入顾客的账户中。这项服务目前收费3.95英镑（约6.50美元），顾客最多可以购买价值300英镑（500美元）的比特币。

    这项服务完善了近期Overstock.com和Tigerdirect.com这类大型网络零售商接受比特币支付的行动——目前，至少在英国，非专业人士也可以轻易地购买和消费比特币了。不过，ZipZap的最终目标不仅在于帮助发达国家的人民购买比特币，而是希望在全球范围内提供比特币与现金互相兑换的服务。ZipZap拉美地区经理杰奎因•莫雷诺说：“我们正走在提高品牌信誉度的道路上，至少是在现金兑换比特币这一流程上。我们随后会启动比特币兑回现金的流程。”ZipZap首席执行官艾伦•萨法西说：“（买方）获得了比特币后就可以在网上使用，也可以把它送给在世界各地的家人。”通过在全球范围内提供近乎免费的比特币兑换渠道，ZipZap有望打造一个与西联国际汇款公司（Western Union）和速汇金（Moneygram）抗衡的汇兑系统。

    比特币的拥趸们常声称，汇兑行业从外来务工人员和未能得到充分金融服务的人群那里得到了近乎垄断性的利润。就这点而言，萨法西显然身负重任。他引用的数据显示：全球每年汇兑额超过5,000亿，手续费平均为9%，最高达到了25%甚至更高。他说：“可以通过减少穷人的汇兑费用，帮助他们摆脱贫困。”

    不过，对于那些常被引用的收费标准是否准确，比特币系统又是否具备改变汇兑市场的潜力，有人提出了质疑。研究机构美洲对话（Inter-American Dialogue）中专门从事汇兑研究的高级研究员曼纽尔•奥罗斯科说：“我知道非洲的每一个汇兑点，他们在胡说八道。把钱汇到非洲的手续费大概是6%。”西联汇款的收费更高——通过快速在线搜索，我们发现把500美元从佛罗里达汇到肯尼亚，需要支付39美元，西联汇款还要收取超过3%的汇率差，总计约11%的手续费。

    奥罗斯科和其他人表示，汇兑服务在满足“反洗钱”（Anti Money Laundering，AML）和“客户身份验证”（Know Your Customer，KYC）的规定上，需要投入大量难以削减的成本。实际上，“执行标准已经越来越严格”，隶属于西联汇款的Appleseed Fund的投资组合经理乔什•施特劳斯表示。他说：“为了满足规定，（西联汇款）2014年的利润将会降低大约8%，”不过也会让竞争对手出局。施特劳斯表示，一旦比特币的竞争对手也需要遵从同样的标准（目前这项标准仅适用于比特币换成现金的情况），他们就几乎得不到价格优势。将比特币作为汇兑媒介还存在其他的风险和成本，比如甚至在短暂的转让过程中，持有的比特币汇率也容易出现较大的汇率波动；比特币的开发系统也至少存在欺诈的风险，安全等级也不够高。综上所述，奥罗斯科对市场将出现大规模变动的论调持怀疑态度。“有人认为目前汇兑的成本过高，而类似比特币的模式可以降低成本。我认为这种观点并不准确。”

    西联汇款的首席信息官大卫•汤普森关注了现有服务商在合规性和安全性上的优势。“一个符合法律规定的系统……需要下大力气进行管理。它需要拥有能够符合规定的网络。”比特币使用了对等网络达成的密码协议模型来保证在网络上交易的安全性，而西联汇款则完全拥有和掌控着一个专门架构的全球网络。西联汇款还有专门的零售店，而ZipZap的项目则是通过与现有的零售金融业的服务商合作来开展的。根据杰奎因•莫雷诺的说法，比起拥有专用设施的公司，ZipZap此举能以更低的成本在更多地点提供他们的服务。

    不过，汤普森确实曾经说过：“一旦我们了解到顾客确实需求这项服务（比特币汇兑），我们会正视它，同时把它作为新货币纳入我们的服务范围。”他表示西联汇款有能力“运营任何种类的货币……我们可以把它（比特币）通过我们的网络转变为可以接受的实体。”他没有详细说明这是否会借助某些代币或衍生系统实现，因为比特币本身只能通过比特币网络进行转移。汤普森拒绝在本周二的盈利电话会议之前就西联汇款可能的收费趋势发表观点。

    Alan Sahafi accuses established remittance players of complacency and inefficiency, ignoring cost savings of available online identification and compliance methods. "I went to a Western Union place a year or so ago. I had to write the entire application by hand, and it took me 10 minutes, and it took the lady behind the counter another 10 minutes to type it up. Why wasn't I doing that on my computer before I went there?" Further, he asks, "why [don't] Western Union or Moneygram offer you a discount after your first transaction?", after which basic compliance is fulfilled. ZipZap is already using those methods -- all of its transactions meet relevant U.K. regulations. "Don't let people fool you that this thing costs a lot of money," says Safahi. "It's just smoke and mirrors." The International Monetary Fund agrees, saying in a report that "lack of transparency" is a major reason for high remittance costs worldwide.

    ZipZap expects to offer cash-out fees similar to those for cash-in, meaning that the Florida-to-Kenya transaction would cost about 3% to Western Union's 11%. "It's not going to happen overnight," Safahi warns, but that scenario would transform economies dependent on remittances -- and present a huge challenge to existing providers. As for how ZipZap itself will make money on these transactions and still pay agents, Safahi speculates that his and similar services may ultimately operate on a "freemium" model similar to some online games, "where you provide free service to anyone anywhere who wants to buy and sell bitcoin, and you sell additional services that people are willing to pay for." Ultimately, he says with passion, "ZipZap will find other ways to make money than gouging people."

    In fact, though, Safahi's greatest long-term dream seems to be one that would put him out of business -- a world where cashing out of bitcoin isn't even necessary. For instance, he says, "85% of remittance is basically bill payment. There are services coming online that will let people pay bills with bitcoin," which could be done from any locale to any other very cheaply. The same may eventually go for goods: "When you have more and more merchants accepting [bitcoin], you wouldn't have to be converting it back to local currencies," says Anthony Di Iorio of KryptoKit, a bitcoin wallet service. Once cash is removed from the equation, global remittances, from one bitcoin wallet to another, could be executed in minutes and cost tiny fractions of a percent.

    Appleseed's Strauss predicts a darker future, in which governments regulate bitcoin's functionality out of existence. "The Chinese came out with what I would expect governments to do going forward," banning banks from allowing cash-for-bitcoin transactions. "Bitcoin allows for avoidance of all AML laws ... There's no way governments are going to allow it."

    A true government crackdown on bitcoin would be disastrous for Safahi, not just as a businessman, but as a global citizen. "There are 6 billion people who can benefit from bitcoin immediately," he says. "We need to be focused on making sure bitcoin thrives, and helping it grow and be successful and bring people out of poverty."

    艾伦•萨法西认为现有的汇兑服务提供商自鸣得意、效率低下，对通过可用的在线识别和合规手段来降低成本置若罔闻。“我在大概一年前去了趟西联汇款。整张申请单都需要手工填写，花了我10分钟时间，然后柜台后面的女士又花了10分钟时间把信息输入电脑。我为什么不自己在电脑上打好了再过去呢？”他还问道：“为什么西联汇款或速汇金（不）在第一次交易之后给你打个折呢？”，因为交易成功这本身就说明已经满足基本法律规定了。ZipZap已经开始采用这些方法——它的所有交易也都符合相关的英国法律。萨法西说：“不要让人耍了，说满足规定需要花很多钱，这都是骗人的。”国际货币基金组织（International Monetary Fund）对此表示赞同，并在一份报告中指出：“缺乏透明度”是全球范围内汇兑价格居高不下的主要原因。

    ZipZap希望以类似现金兑换比特币的收费提供比特币兑换现金的服务，这就意味着比起西联汇款11%的价位，佛罗里达到肯尼亚的汇兑只需要大约3%的手续费。萨法西提醒说：“这不会在一夜之间就发生，”但这种情况会改变汇兑相关领域的经济情况——并给现有的汇兑服务提供商带来巨大的挑战。至于ZipZap自身如何通过这些交易实现盈利，给员工开工资，萨法西推测，他的公司和类似的服务提供商也许最终会像某些网游一样，采用“免费+增值”模式，“给全球各地想要买卖比特币的用户提供免费服务，同时你也出售一些用户愿意购买的附加服务。”最后，他豪情万丈地说：“ZipZap会找到其他方法来盈利，绝不会剥削大众。”

    然而，实际上，萨法西伟大的长期构想也许会是导致他破产的一个因素。它就是一个甚至没有必要将比特币兑换成现金的世界。比如，他说：“85%的汇兑实际上是账单支付。会有一些让人们使用比特币付款的服务在网上涌现。”任何地方的人都能以低廉的价格给其他任何人汇款。同样的情况也许最终会发生在商品上，比特币钱包服务商KryptoKit的安东尼•迪•约里奥说：“等到越来越多的商家开始接受（比特币），你就不用把它兑换成本地货币了。”一旦现金从这个等式中消失，从一个比特币钱包到另一个的全球汇兑就可以在几分钟内完成，花费也是微乎其微。

    Appleseed的施特劳斯的预言则比较悲观：政府会对比特币进行管制，它的功能将不复存在。“中国的反应就是我认为各国政府未来将会采取的行动。”中国已经禁止银行开展现金兑换比特币的交易。“比特币能够让人绕开所有的反洗钱法律……因此政府不可能给它亮绿灯。”

    政府如果真刀真枪地开始制裁比特币，对萨法西来说则是一场灾难，不仅是作为一个商人，而是作为一名世界公民。他说：“有60亿人马上就可以从比特币中获益。我们需要专注于确保比特币的繁荣发展，获得成功，让人们摆脱贫困。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正