Spaza Shops Cash Out

Is there any plan in place for a cash out options for small merchants say at spaza shops in South Africa? Say for example, a small merchant is willing to sell items at his informal shop in exchange for ETN from clients, but wants an option to exchange the ETN his shop has made for cash. Keeping in mind that small merchants needs to buy stock and currently there are no larger wholesalers accepting ETN. Will there be any ETN agents on the ground in South Africa who can facilitate an ETN for FIAT exchange? In a way that’s not to complex for informal traders to use? Many informal traders do not have or use bank accounts, so a system needs to be made that allows for easy cash out options.

A solution might be for till point cashout at Picknpay and checkers till points. Most banks in South Africa allow for cashout at tills. The fee is roughly R1.00 (10.8ETN) per transaction, max R1000 out at a time.

Possibly ETN could negotiate with PnP, Checkers and PEP stores about ETN to FIAT cash out, which the informal sector could then tie into?

This is a good question that might actually be solved by entrepreneurial types in that region first. The South African exchange Sistemcoin has a direct ETN/Fiat pairing in their local currency. Someone might open a service for those shops to do these types of exchanges for them if they are not wanting to figure out how to do it themselves. But I agree it would be fantastic if there was a vendor service that could do it for them as needed. The idea behind the whole ecosystem is to keep the ETN circulating, but until everyone starts accepting ETN as payment your point is 100% valid.

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I was thinking the same - there would always be someone willing to buy the ETN off the smaller outlets and then cash out themselves via an exchange

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It seems they might already have it? Are you seeing what I’m seeing? R is their fiat

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No, those are just fiat conversion equivalents for easy conversion understanding. They don’t do any actual conversions as that would require a bank card of some sort to charge and convert into ETN.

It is almost a certainty that little shops offering ETN to fiat conversions will spring up, much like a currency conversion shop in international airports. It’s not difficult to do if you know how to use a crypto exchange and have the fiat to cover the amounts other vendors are needing to quickly convert. It could be a profitable little business too by charging a small premium for the quick conversion.

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Oh it appeared to me they could buy a package of rand using Electroneum. Thanks for the clarification. The conversion is directly under the price of Etn . I’m talking about the packages to clarify @Cryptoman976

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ohh, I see what you are saying. I didn’t notice that myself. That’s interesting…I have no answer for that one. hmmm…

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Yeah I just found this and am trying to find an answer because that is what it appears to be to me. Pretty interesting

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@Tika found some interesting things
@Maritz is also a wealth of information!

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We have tagged them also asking and are waiting for a response :+1:

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Okay it seems to be that is the amount of airtime but still waiting on conformation.

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Yes you guys are correct. That is an airtime amount in South African Rands. So you can click and purchase airtime in South African Rand directly in app :wink:

The airtime is a Fiat amount but it’s not a fiat. But yes it has fiat value.

The unlimited is a relatively small unknown mobile brand (at least to me). This is actually the first time I have heard of them. However this is a very good move and am sure it might encourage other mobile networks to get involved.

Electroneum should buy Mpesa from Vodacom and merge ETN with mPesa. Vodacom has tried and failed to get mPesa running in South Africa on 3 seperate occasions.

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Morning all, early morning in South Africa! What the buzz all about?

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This is airtime or data. It’s not fiat but yes it’s in ZAR and has similar value to Fiat. This could spawn a micro economy of people who trade airtime for ETN. They could in theory then sell the airtime in exchange for fiat. Still there needs to be a faster easier cash out for vendors. I am sure someone will find a way to make cash out via pnp and checkers till points.

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Goodmorning from the Garden Route of South Africa. The buzz seems to be that the guys have noticed that in South Africa you can buy airtime with ETN. Which is a great start and will create opportunities for micro enterprises eventually. Now all we need to do is get the target audience to use ETN. :wink:

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Yes I misunderstood the airtime being labeled in ZAR. Thank you for clearing it up :+1:

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How is airtime measured? How much does one get and how frequently?

You still have a good point. In countries like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, it has been reported the people buy food etc using only airtime trading. So this could lead to good things, if the target audience understands the concept and starts using the system. Only time will tell if the people adopt this new system. Vodacom tried and failed multiple times with mPesa. :see_no_evil:

But that doesn’t say much. I am sure if Electroneum plays their cards right they will be successful.

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Can’t actually find anything on their site stating how airtime is measured. Usually in South Africa it’s per second or per minute billing. Will keep digging.

Their site does say “Purchased airtime lasts for 90 days from the day it was loaded. Free airtime lasts for 30 days from the day it was loaded. All data (purchased or double data) lasts for 30 days from the day it was loaded.”

This is a bit troubling because why would airtime expire if unused? There goes the whole trading value of the airtime.

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Yes but they could still trade whatever it may be for Etn for future packages. That way vendors will hold some Etn to be able to supply packages when needed. That’s my opinion, could work in our favor actually as a store of value.

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