{"id":32426,"date":"2024-12-31T19:25:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T19:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=32426"},"modified":"2024-12-31T19:25:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T19:25:04","slug":"neobank-yopaki-aims-to-make-every-mexican-a-bitcoiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=32426","title":{"rendered":"Neobank Yopaki Aims To Make Every Mexican A Bitcoiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Company Name:<\/strong> Yopaki<\/p>\n

Founders:<\/strong> Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)<\/p>\n

Date Founded:<\/strong> March 2023<\/p>\n

Location of Headquarters:<\/strong> Austin, TX<\/p>\n

Number of Employees:<\/strong> Four full time; one part time<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.yopaki.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Public or Private?<\/strong> Private<\/p>\n

In 2021, Francisco Chavarria stood in the audience at Bitcoin 2021 and watched as Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately delivered his now famous keynote speech<\/a> during which he revealed that El Salvador planned to make bitcoin legal tender.<\/p>\n

That moment sparked something within Chavarria.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unlike anything I\u2019d experienced in my professional career,\u201d Chavarria told Bitcoin Magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had to do something in the Bitcoin space after that. It was the seed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

First-forward ahead two years, and Chavarria found himself putting his career as a Software as a Service (SaaS) consultant on hold to draw up the blueprints for Yopaki<\/a>, a neobank and investment app with a Bitcoin-focus, aimed at serving the people of his home country, Mexico. (Users outside of Mexico can also use Yopaki\u2019s non-custodial Lighting wallet.)<\/p>\n

Since then, he and his co-founder, Carlos Chida, have been hard at work bringing Yopaki to life, including taking part in Wolf\u2019s Bitcoin Accelerator program<\/a> in efforts to make Yopaki as cutting-edge and dynamic as possible.<\/p>\n

But before getting to that part of the story, let\u2019s start with the cultural origin of the platform\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s In A Name?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe name Yopaki comes from the ancient language Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs,\u201d explained Chavarria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aztecs lived in the center region of what today is Mexico, and they’re the ones responsible for some of the biggest pyramids in all of Latin America. The center of this historical place is called Teotihuac\u00e1n, \u2018the place of the gods,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name itself, if I were to translate it into English, most closely means \u201cthe pursuit of happiness.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Judging by the name alone, it\u2019s clear that Chavarria views Yopaki as more than just another business endeavor \u2014 he wants it to have a profound impact on those who use it.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019ll need the app to have such an impact if he and his team are to succeed in their mission: to turn every Mexican into a Bitcoiner.<\/p>\n

2025 Dream Predictions for Bitcoin in Mexico \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd\ud83d\ude36\u200d\ud83c\udf2b\ufe0f <\/p>\n

1. Bitcoin adoption in Mexico surges.<\/p>\n

2. Mexican Bitcoin startups attract global investors. With El Salvador\u2019s influence, Mexico becomes the Latin American leader for Bitcoin innovation.<\/p>\n

3. Peso-Bitcoin integration deepens.\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Francisco Chavarria (@FranciscoBTC) December 31, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Bitcoin In The Mexican Context<\/h2>\n

When Bitcoin is brought up in the context of Latin America and other developing regions, it\u2019s often referenced as a tool to \u201cbank the unbanked.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Mexico\u2019s banking system is \u201cquite advanced,\u201d according to Chavarria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe infrastructure has been built for people to have access to banking,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not be the same banking that we have in the U.S. (where Chavarria currently resides), but, for example, in Mexico, there are stores like 7\/11s called OXXOs, and they\u2019re everywhere. Any person can walk into an OXXO with an ID, and within 20 minutes, they can walk out with a Visa card and an app,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not exactly a bank, but it provides access to payment rails,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Chavarria went on to share that these Visa cards charge high fees, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very predatory in that sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So, Yopaki provides its Mexican users with access to three different monetary accounts: a Mexican peso account, a U.S. dollar account and a (non-custodial) bitcoin Lightning wallet. Each of these accounts lets their users transact at lower rates than said Visa cards. (In 2025, Yopaki will also enable its Mexican users to buy stocks, ETFs and other securities, as well.)<\/p>\n

By offering a bitcoin wallet alongside accounts for traditional currencies, Chavarria hopes to legitimize bitcoin in the eyes of its users. However, he also feels that Yopaki has some work to do as far as helping Mexicans to get comfortable using bitcoin, which is why he and his team are doing what they can to make the process enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Making Bitcoin Fun With Loter\u00eda<\/em><\/h2>\n

Loter\u00eda <\/em>is a favorite pastime of the Mexican people. It\u2019s comparable to Bingo but with images instead of numbers.<\/p>\n

Chavarria and the Yopaki team included it into the app with a Bitcoin slant \u2014 concepts and characters like the Lightning Network and Max Keiser appear in the Yopaki version of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to Mexico, people think tequila, tacos, mariachi, and Loter\u00eda<\/em>,\u201d said Chavarria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no negative connotation to the game. Because of this, the feedback we’ve received over the last couple of months has been, \u2018Man, I didn’t realize that Bitcoin was fun,\u2019\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Users earn sats as they play Loter\u00eda within the app. When they\u2019ve earned 1,000 sats or more, they can learn through the app how to transfer those sats from Yopaki\u2019s custody into their own, all within the Yopaki app.<\/p>\n

Yopaki teamed up with Breez<\/a> to bring its users a non-custodial Lightning wallet that doesn\u2019t require its users to to deal with the hassle of Lightning channel management.<\/p>\n

Yopaki + Breez<\/h2>\n

\u201cOne of the main reasons we decided to go with Breez is that we knew about their implementation of the Nodeless SDK through Liquid<\/a> before it was public,\u201d said Chavarria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know channel management is a fundamental roadblock for a lot of people in using an application like this. The second you introduce roadblocks the experience becomes scary. It\u2019s just too much,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in offering a product in which users can do an immediate transaction, that magic that we’ve all had as Bitcoiners can be brought to the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavarria went on to share that Yopaki\u2019s Lightning wallet is so easy to use that even his mother-in-law is now using (and enjoying) the product.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s excited to bring such a product to the Mexican market, because, as he put it, Mexicans \u201chave been rugged\u201d by custodial solutions in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we let users know that we don\u2019t hold their funds,\u201d said Chavarria.<\/p>\n

Prioritizing Bitcoin Education<\/h2>\n

Not only does the Yopaki team encourage and prioritize self-sovereignty, but it also educates its users about Bitcoin, as it doesn\u2019t underestimate their curiosity and ability to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have curated content including lessons on broad topics like \u2018What is money?\u2019 \u2014 not just Bitcoin, but money,\u201d explained Chavarria. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re micro lessons that take anywhere from one to two minutes to complete. At the end of the day, it’s about creating a curiosity that I feel and I think a lot of us feel the legacy system has not really cared about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The educational component within the app also sets it apart from its competitors in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cBitso is the largest player not just in Mexico but all of Latin America, and we have a lot of respect for what they’ve done, but they have turned into a casino with tokens and NFTs and all of that,\u201d shared Chavarria. \u201cWe believe they have really underestimated the curiosity of their users and just triggered the degenerate gambling addiction side of things instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guidance From Wolf<\/h2>\n

Given how cool, calm and collected Chavarria was when I spoke with him, I got the impression that the now fleshed out vision for Yopaki came to him with relative ease, maybe even in a flash of light.<\/p>\n

But he told me otherwise.<\/p>\n

Apparently, he and Chida\u2019s experience at Wolf\u2019s Bitcoin startup incubator pushed them out of their comfort zone and into a state of mind that helped them to make Yopaki as unique as it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the most important and meaningful experiences we could have gone through,\u201d said Chavarria of his time at Wolf. \u201cThe type of feedback we received and the type of strategy sessions we had were, to say it nicely, brutal in a good way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavarria explained how he and Chida did, in fact, enter the Wolf program thinking they\u2019d already crafted a solid vision for Yopaki, but that the guidance they received in the program is what pushed them to create many of the features that differentiate the apps for others like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving people like Kelly Brewster (Wolf\u2019s CEO), who has years of experience at Goldman Sachs, and Ross Stevens (Wolf\u2019s founder) really sit down and ask the tough questions and push you to the limit was powerful,\u201d said Chavarria. \u201cThey made us really consider \u2018Do you understand that what you’re doing is difficult?\u2019 and made us articulate how we were going to execute our plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Year Ahead<\/h2>\n

As mentioned, Yopaki will enable its Mexican users to begin investing in traditional assets in the coming year and, starting next month, it will offer users a bitcoin exchange, as well.<\/p>\n

What is more, it will issue its users debit cards that they can use to spend their pesos, dollars or bitcoin. And Chavarria says it plans to offer sats back rewards when users purchase either traditional assets or bitcoin via the app.<\/p>\n

With so much coming down the pike, Chavarria is in good spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m just grateful that we’re doing this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been really fun to build in the bear \u2014 now the good times are coming.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company Name: Yopaki Founders: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO) Date Founded: March 2023 Location of Headquarters: Austin, TX Number of Employees: Four full time; one part time Website: https:\/\/www.yopaki.com\/ Public or Private? Private In 2021, Francisco Chavarria stood in the audience at Bitcoin 2021 and watched as Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately delivered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":32427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}