I'm curious now. How does Western Union work in the B-B framework, given the principle of non-reversible payments that's desired here, and all the fraud associated with WU money transfers? And more generally, what are the fees and limits associated with using WU to buy or sell BTC?
I am happy you asked.
The Western Union payment option is a payment made directly to Bitcoin-Brokers as compared to a payment into the seller's account with bank deposits. These WU bitcoin will be sourced from an exchange by Bitcoin-Brokers, and will be sold at current MtGox rates.
There will be the normal Bitcoin-Brokers fee of 2%.
The buyers will bare the all the associated costs with sending the payment by Western Union.
The WU payment option comes at a higher cost to the buyer than any of the bank deposit options.
As a result, WU should not come into direct competition with the existing sellers because frankly its not as convenient as the bank method, and it will come at a higher cost by a few points.
Hopefully though it will be an attractive option to people living in other countries where purchasing bitcoin isn't as convenient as it is in the USA or Canada.
