[conformal]

you're quite the payment wizard, dobbsbob.

can you comment on the kind of fees you ended up generating when you were experimenting in Argentina? i expect that fees would be different depending on the direction you went from ARS.

a bank account in an hour? opening a bitcoin business account in the US takes easily 1.5 hours, if not twice that.

[dobbsbob]

Fees all depend on volume of course, so you have to weasel around with sales guys to lock them down. For Inpay I was paying 7% or so fees, and it was free to receive wires in my Okpay account because I am an exchanger with them. To become an exchanger you just buy $1,000 worth of Okpay and fill out the application/send in passport copies. Now all internal transfers, and bank fees are free.

If you want a surreal experience open a bank account in Belarus. A bulletproof limo picks you up at the airport and you go directly to the bank and receive your unlimited debit card and privacy statement they will never give your info to anybody no matter what, unless you commit crimes in Belarus. Azerbaijan is the same thing.

I'm surprised there isn't a gigantic European exchange using a Belorussian bank account. Could accept all the US wires you want and they wouldn't respond to angry requests from NY state to seize your funds because you don't have a MSB license. Of course you could end up kidnapped though for extraordinary rendition back to the US like they did all those Russians who ran gambling payment gateways :P

[mschuster91]

Interesting. Can you share the name of that bank and the minimum requirements of opening an account in Belarus?

[dobbsbob]

http://www.priorbank.by/e/ or infobank.

Min deposit was 25,000 Euros but I was told other banks it's a lot smaller, like 5,000 Euros but this is the best bank. Be aware this is Belarus, and it's a dictatorship so you're flying by the seat of your pants finances there's nothing to stop the government just taking your money but then again, US does this all the time too. If you want to open a mega bitcoin exchange there ya go. Getting permanent residency in Belarus is easy too. Plus there's no tax on worldwide income there. I hired a Belorussian lawyer to set this up.

Privatbank in Ukraine will also open for non residents if you visit in person and english is widely spoken. Small minimum deposit $100 http://old.privatbank.ua/info/index3.stm?fileName=5_2_35e.ht... however any transfer over $5,000 is reported to the tax police.

Belarus seems to have no financial police whatsoever if you wanted to withdraw a million in cash they would do it no questions asked. In fact, they didn't even ask me the source of the income when I opened the account. While getting the account you wait in a lounge while somebody pours you free drinks and watch shady Russian businessmen walk out with bags of cash and private security to take back to Moscow.

[hayksaakian]

This seems completely legit. Thanks for the information.

[mcherm]

dobbsbob writes: > Belarus seems to have no financial police whatsoever [...] they didn't even ask me the source of the income [...] watch shady Russian businessmen walk out with bags of cash

hayksaakian writes: > This seems completely legit.

I find myself unable to tell whether you (hayksaakian) are being serious or ironic.

[hayksaakian]

That is to say, it all seems very questionable, but under the radar enough that it may still be useful information