This Indonesian startup says it struck gold in bitcoin, delivers currency in 3 minutes

For those of you who’ve been living on the moon, bitcoin is an unregulated digital currency that provides a way for folks to transfer money to each other over the web without using a bank or financial institution as a middleman. All bitcoin users need to do is install a wallet app to start trading with bitcoin.

The technology is disruptive and controversial because bitcoin spenders can make their transactions anonymously, and even pay for illegal goods and services like drugs and prostitution online. However, bitcoin can have positive impacts as well, and it may yet prove to be a useful tool for emerging markets like Indonesia, where 80 percent of the population don’t have bank accounts but still own mobile phones.

Internationally, the major bitcoin exchange players include Coinbase, CampBX, and itBit. Tiyo Triyanto, founder of the Indonesian bitcoin exchange startup Bitdoku, says he wants his company to become the Coinbase of Southeast Asia.

At the moment, a single bitcoin is worth US$381. Triyanto claims his company, which is still in closed beta testing, was able to facilitate the sales of US$22,000 worth of bitcoin within 24 hours of opening a booth at Startup Asia Jakarta 2014. Triyanto provided Tech in Asia with a bank statement to prove it, but asked that the video not be shared with the public.

See: Singapore government decides not to interfere with Bitcoin

Word-of-mouth to open floodgates

“When we showcased our platform during Startup Asia, we received a response that was beyond our expectation,” explains Triyanto, who credits word-of-mouth as the primary driver for a rapid influx of transactions on Bitdoku. “From the reception we received during those two days at the expo, we are really optimistic. […] The range is very interesting, they spent as little as Rp 10,000 (US$0.81) to as much as Rp 21 million (US$1,711).”

Bitdoku founder Tiyo Triyanto

According to Triyanto, if an Indonesian citizen wants to buy bitcoin from one of the top three exchanges in the world (ie: China, the US, or Europe), they must wait three days for funds to be transferred from Indonesia to the overseas recipients. In terms of speed, Triyanto says Bitdoku is stronger than its local competitors Bestbit and Bitcoin.co.id because it can deliver the cryptocurrency within three minutes, whereas the other guys take up to three hours.

With Bitdoku, users send an SMS or WhatsApp message to Triyanto and his team containing the amount they want to purchase, their bitcoin wallet address, and personal email address. Minutes after users make their payments, they are notified of the bitcoin arriving in their digital wallets. Currently, Bitdoku monetizes by collecting a 0.2 percent transaction fee, which Triyanto claims is 35 percent lower than his local competitors.

Jakarta’s streets to be repaved with bitcoin

However, according to Triyanto, the fee only applies to Bitdoku’s “advanced users,” while newbie users are allowed to execute transactions with no fee at all. He did not mention how he makes the distinction between advanced and newbie users, but he did say that, typically, advanced users are people who have backgrounds in trading and forex.