Neobank Yopaki Aims To Make Every Mexican A Bitcoiner

Credit : bitcoinmagazine.com

Firm identify: Yopaki

Founders: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)

Date of firm: March 2023

Location of the top workplace: Austin, Texas

Variety of workers: 4 full-time; one part-time

Web site: https://www.yopaki.com/

Public or non-public? Personal

In 2021, Francisco Chavarria stood within the viewers at Bitcoin 2021 and watched Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately ship his speech now famous keynote speech by which he revealed that El Salvador was planning to make bitcoin authorized tender.

That second sparked one thing inside Chavarria.

“It was in contrast to something I had skilled in my skilled profession,” Chavarria instructed Bitcoin Journal.

“I knew I needed to do one thing in Bitcoin subsequent. It was the seed,” he added.

Two years later, Chavarria discovered himself placing his profession as a Software program as a Service (SaaS) guide on maintain to attract up the blueprints for Yopakia neobanking and investing app with a Bitcoin focus, aimed toward serving the individuals of its dwelling nation, Mexico. (Customers outdoors Mexico also can use Yopaki’s non-custodial Lighting pockets.)

Since then, he and his co-founder, Carlos Chida, have labored onerous to deliver Yopaki to life, together with taking part in Wolf’s Bitcoin Accelerator program in efforts to make Yopaki as superior and dynamic as doable.

However earlier than we get into that a part of the story, let’s begin with the cultural origins of the platform’s identify.

What’s in a reputation?

“The identify Yopaki comes from the traditional language Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs,” Chavarria explains.

‘The Aztecs lived within the heart of what’s now Mexico, and they’re chargeable for among the largest pyramids in all of Latin America. The middle of this historic website known as Teotihuacán, ‘the place of the gods’,” he added.

“The identify itself, if I had been to translate it into English, most means ‘the pursuit of happiness’.”

Based mostly on the identify alone, it’s clear that Chavarria views Yopaki as greater than only a enterprise enterprise; he needs it to have a profound impression on those that use it.

And he’ll want the app to have such an impression if he and his crew wish to succeed of their mission: turning each Mexican right into a Bitcoiner.

2025 Dream Predictions for Bitcoin in Mexico 🇲🇽😶‍🌫️

1. Bitcoin adoption in Mexico is rising.

2. Mexican Bitcoin Startups Appeal to World Buyers. With El Salvador’s affect, Mexico is changing into the Latin American chief in Bitcoin innovation.

3. Peso-Bitcoin Integration Deepens.…

— Francisco Chavarria (@FranciscoBTC) December 31, 2024

Bitcoin within the Mexican context

When Bitcoin is mentioned within the context of Latin America and different creating areas, it’s sometimes called a instrument to “financial institution the unbanked.”

Nevertheless, based on Chavarria, the Mexican banking system is “fairly superior.”

“The infrastructure was constructed so that folks have entry to banking,” he defined.

“It might not be the identical financial institution as we have now within the US (the place Chavarria at present lives), however in Mexico, for instance, there are shops like 7/11s referred to as OXXOs, and they’re all over the place. Anybody can stroll into an OXXO with an ID and stroll out in 20 minutes with a Visa card and an app,” he added.

“It is not precisely a financial institution, nevertheless it offers entry to fee rails,” he added.

Chavarria additional stated that these Visa playing cards, nonetheless, cost excessive charges.

“They’re very predatory in that sense,” he stated.

Yopaki thus provides its Mexican customers entry to 3 totally different cash accounts: a Mexican peso account, a US greenback account and a (non-custodial) bitcoin Lightning pockets. Every of those accounts permits their customers to make transactions at decrease charges than the talked about Visa playing cards. (In 2025, Yopaki can even enable its Mexican customers to purchase shares, ETFs and different securities.)

By providing a bitcoin pockets along with conventional foreign money accounts, Chavarria hopes to legitimize bitcoin within the eyes of its customers. Nevertheless, he additionally believes that Yopaki nonetheless has some work to do to assist Mexicans develop into snug utilizing bitcoin. That is why he and his crew do every thing they will to make the method pleasant.

Making Bitcoin enjoyable Loteria

Loteria is a favourite pastime of the Mexican individuals. It’s just like Bingo, however with footage as a substitute of numbers.

Chavarria and the Yopaki crew included it into the app with a Bitcoin slant: ideas and characters just like the Lightning Community and Max Keizer seem within the Yopaki model of the sport.

“With regards to Mexico, individuals consider tequila, tacos, mariachi and Loteria,” Chavarria stated.

“There isn’t any unfavourable connotation to the sport. That is why the suggestions we have acquired in current months is, ‘Man, I did not know Bitcoin was enjoyable,'” he added.

Customers earn sats whereas enjoying Lotería within the app. As soon as they earn 1,000 sats or extra, they will study by means of the app the best way to switch these sats from Yopaki’s custody to their dwelling nation, all throughout the Yopaki app.

Yopaki together with Breez to supply its customers with a non-custodial Lightning pockets, the place the customers do not must take care of the trouble of Lightning channel administration.

Yopaki + Breez

“One of many essential causes we determined to work with Breez is as a result of we knew about their implementation of the Nodeless SDK via Liquid earlier than it was public,” Chavarria stated.

“We all know that channel administration is a basic impediment for many individuals when utilizing an software like this. When you introduce roadblocks, the expertise turns into scary. It is simply an excessive amount of,” he added.

“So by providing a product that enables customers to make an immediate transaction, the magic we have all had as Bitcoiners may be delivered to the plenty.”

Chavarria went on to say that Yopaki’s Lightning pockets is really easy to make use of that even his mother-in-law now makes use of (and enjoys) the product.

He is excited to deliver such a product to the Mexican market as a result of, as he put it, Mexicans have been “tough” with deprivations of liberty prior to now.

“It is vital that we let customers know that we do not personal their cash,” Chavarria stated.

Prioritizing Bitcoin Schooling

The Yopaki crew not solely encourages and prioritizes self-sovereignty, but additionally educates its customers about Bitcoin as a result of it doesn’t underestimate their curiosity and studying means.

“We have put collectively content material together with classes on broad matters like ‘What’s cash?’ – not simply Bitcoin, however cash,” Chavarria explains.

“They’re micro classes that final one to 2 minutes. Finally, it is about making a curiosity that I really feel and I believe a variety of us really feel just like the outdated system does not actually care,” he added.

The tutorial part throughout the app additionally units it other than its rivals within the area.

“Bitso is the largest participant, not simply in Mexico, however in all of Latin America, and we have now a variety of respect for what they’ve finished, however they’ve was a on line casino with tokens and NFTs and all that,” Chavarria says. “We imagine they actually underestimated the curiosity of their customers and as a substitute simply triggered the degenerate playing habit.”

Steering from Wolf

Given how cool, calm, and picked up Chavarria was once I spoke to him, I received the impression that the now-formed imaginative and prescient for Yopaki got here to him comparatively simply, even perhaps in a flash of sunshine.

However he instructed me one thing totally different.

Apparently, he and Chida’s expertise at Wolf’s Bitcoin startup incubator pushed them out of their consolation zone and right into a way of thinking that has helped them make Yopaki as distinctive as it’s.

“It was one of the crucial vital and significant experiences we might have had,” Chavarria stated of his time at Wolf. “The sort of suggestions we received and the sort of technique classes we had had been, to place it properly, brutal in a great way.”

Chavarria defined how he and Chida primarily entered the Wolf Program underneath the belief that that they had already developed a strong imaginative and prescient for Yopaki, however the steerage they acquired in this system led them to create most of the options that will make the distinguish apps. for others prefer it.

“It was highly effective to have individuals like Kelly Brewster (Wolf CEO), who has years of expertise at Goldman Sachs, and Ross Stevens (Wolf founder) actually sit down and ask the robust questions and push you to your limits,” Chavarria stated. “They actually made us suppose, ‘Do you perceive that what you are doing is tough?’ and made it clear to us how we had been going to implement our plan.

The approaching yr

As talked about, Yopaki will enable its Mexican customers to begin investing in conventional property within the coming yr and beginning subsequent month it can additionally supply customers a bitcoin alternate.

Furthermore, it can situation its customers debit playing cards with which they will spend their pesos, {dollars} or bitcoin. And Chavarria says it plans to supply “sat-back” rewards when customers purchase conventional property or bitcoin by means of the app.

With a lot coming down the pike, Chavarria is in good spirits.

“I am simply grateful that we’re doing this,” he stated.

“It was a variety of enjoyable constructing the bear – now the great occasions are coming.”