Company Name Azteco
Founders: Alexander Fernandez and Paul Ferguson
Date founded: 2014
The location of the headquarters: Santa Monica (CA)
Bitcoins in Treasury Not disclosed
The number of employees: 12
Website: https://azte.co/
Public or private? Private Investigators
When Alexander “Akin” Fernandez first conceptualized Azteco Over a decade earlier, he wanted to make it easier for people to acquire bitcoin. He wanted to allow people to buy bitcoin in the same way they would purchase gift cards. Therefore, he designed a system where people could purchase pre-paid bitcoin vouchers as low as $10 and redeem them in just a few minutes.
Azteco vouchers can be purchased online, or in person with cash from local vendors in more than 190 countries. Azteco is a convenient way to purchase BTC. You don’t need to divulge your personal information. Azteco provides both Lightning and On-Chain capabilities. This allows users to choose whether they want their BTC to be redeemed on Bitcoin’s base chain, or Lightning. Lightning NetworkA Layer 2 payment network built over the Bitcoin blockchain.
Fernandez estimates that over one million Azteco coupons have been purchased. His ambitions go beyond this already impressive number: He wants Azteco to serve a client base that is 30 times larger. “normalizing” Bitcoin.
Below is a transcript of our discussion, which has been edited to make it more concise and clear.
Frank Corva Azteco was inspired by what?
Akin Fernandez: My mother was the one who brought it to me own Finding out how difficult it is to get bitcoin. The process doesn’t necessarily have to be so difficult. It would be possible to use the same system as top-up vouchers, used by billions of mobile phone users, to obtain bitcoin. We just need to build the software and put it in place. work. The answer is yes.
Corva: When you created Azteco, did you design it with a specific customer in mind?
Fernandez: I was thinking of myself. I didn’t want to have to put in any effort or fuss to obtain bitcoin. I wished to have the ability to walk into a supermarket and buy 20 bitcoins, then transfer them to my wallet. And I’m not unique. It was easy to assume there would be others who understood the concept and could use it easily, and that they’d take to the system like ducks to water.
Many inventions are the result of people solving their own problems, and not to become rich. own problems. Because people are so similar, they can solve the problems of others.
Corva: You can also speak of yourself own experience. You were unbanked at one time, I read. If this is the truth, could you explain it?
Fernandez: It’s true that, up until today, I have no idea why I was unbanked. I went down “my” They couldn’t locate my account on the system when I went to the bank to cash a cheque. They had not written me or contacted me in any other way. A few days later, my bank account was gone. For many years, I did not have credit cards and other things that people in Western countries take for granted.
I learned a big lesson from this experience about the difficulty of doing anything in 21st-century if you do not have banking services. Shop online is no longer an option. It is no longer convenient to pay with your card in the store. It’s all over.
When I worked on Azteco it became clear how powerful it would be. With Bitcoin you can’t be bankrupted by a third party. You are in control of your fake money.
Corva: You’ve used this phrase before “synthetic money” You’ve talked about how bitcoin is not money. Why should we care?
Fernandez: This is important, because it’s the truth. Bitcoin is not money — it’s a database. Can you use it as money? It can be used as money. You can use it as extremely good money. It is an excellent simulation of real money. The money doesn’t even have to exist for the game to be worthwhile.
If you refer to bitcoin as money, then all of the restrictions that the government has placed on real money may be slapped or inappropriately brushed onto Bitcoin, which will make it harder to use and spread. It’s important that we tell the truth when it comes to Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s slow penetration is due to the misinterpretation of its value as currency.
WhatsApp reached 1 billion users within four-and-ahalf years. This is the type of growth we would expect to see if Bitcoin was as frictionless as WhatsApp.
Bitcoin is not as popular as it should be, which means that we must think differently about Bitcoin.
Corva: What is the number of people that Azteco reaches? What is the number of vouchers that Azteco sold during Q4 or Q3 2023
Fernandez: Since I am the CEO, not the CFO, the numbers aren’t readily available to me. Last month was our best ever. This was confirmed to me yesterday. We’re increasing the number of vouchers that we sell, which is due to our increased distribution as well as a change in global sentiment toward Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is the easiest method to obtain bitcoin. People say these two things when they discover us: “First of all, why isn’t everything as easy as this?” The following are some examples of how to get started: “How come I haven’t heard of this before?”
Things are synergizing and coming together to bring us to a point where we’re a global force for good and for getting Bitcoin to the people who need it the most — the unbanked and the people who don’t have access to financial People who do not want to be victims or rails financial rails.
Old school Bitcoin businesses have served people for the past 10 years and all of them believe Bitcoin is money. They make it difficult to open an account. The idea of having an account is already ingrained in the minds of most people, be it through email or another method. It is assumed that, “Well, of course, I have to have an account in order to use this service.”
Bitcoin does not work that way. There is no need for a user account. [Some] Wallet companies do this right. Samourai Wallet is one of the wallets that does this correctly. own money.
The EU is saying that you should not be allowed to use Bitcoin without a account. In the EU, they are trying to implement this.
Corva: The US is doing this with the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act (DAAMLA)The bill that Elizabeth Warren wrote is also worth mentioning.
Fernandez: These people have broken their oath. These people have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution which guarantees free speech for every American. Bitcoin is the language. This is a database in which speech can be recorded, stored, and then transmitted.
Cynthia Lummis, a Republican who has written a truly appalling article on Democrats. bill It was a pleasure to be with you. tearing to pieces on my blog.
It’s because they don’t realize what the role of a civil servant is. The servant does not control its master. A servant obeys the electorate. It is not in their interest to inform people that they must do KYC before using bitcoin.
Corva: Do you think that people are using Azteco to get KYC free bitcoin in America?
Fernandez: It is necessary to explain the service in order to penetrate the American Market. It is necessary to deprogram the people. The people don’t realize that Bitcoin isn’t a way to earn more money in fiat.
You need to show people that there is a better way to accomplish things. WhatsApp is a perfect example.
Before WhatsApp people paid for SMS, but this idea is unimaginable today. Bitcoin allows you to send money directly to your family without paying exorbitant charges, identifying yourself, or any other hassle.
Bitcoin allows for instant payments. [also] Get other benefits. The hyperinflation has begun and the people have started to realise that something is wrong with their money.
It is difficult for people to find out the real reason why McDonald’s prices are increasing. What if they found out what caused the price increase? The answer is to get Bitcoin, but they will need more steps before people see it as the solution.
Corva: “I agree”
Fernandez: Also, the current crop of businesses — big businesses like Binance, Coinbase — are synonymous with bitcoin. Azteco must be associated with bitcoin. Most people aren’t rich. It’s not like they have $100,000 in bitcoin to spend. They are living day-to-day.
Since these people are not investors and they don’t have spare money to keep in bitcoin in the hopes that it’s going to go up — which of course it will — they need to have bitcoin as daily money for everyday spending.
As soon as you begin to discuss these topics, business models and opportunities start to disappear from the discussion. Cynthia Lummes and Elizabeth Warrens stop these models from developing because they are trying to regulate things they do not have the right to.
Corva: When you talk about other companies, what do they sound like? MachankuraAzteco has a complement in the form of a protocol, which allows Africans to easily use Bitcoin as part of a KYC process. What are some other Bitcoin companies that compliment Azteco’s work?
Fernandez: It is a compliment to have an ethical Bitcoin wallet. Samourai Wallet or Wallet of Satoshi are examples of ethical Bitcoin wallets. I know that some people don’t like Wallet of Satoshi because the architecture on the backend is not to their liking, but these people don’t run businesses — they don’t know how difficult it is to do these things.
New to the list is The Bitkey wallet. The Bitkey wallet really is amazing. This is a well-thought out solution. The user interface and user experience — it’s going to make everybody change their game.
For a while, I said that Apple, Microsoft and other companies would get involved with Bitcoin. These companies will bring the user experience to Bitcoin. Current companies do not think about the user experience.
Jack Dorsey’s Bitkey has been a kick in the backside to a lot of people who realize that we can’t just carry on doing what we want to do and expecting people to just accept it — the idea that you have to write down your mnemonic before you receive your first transaction. This is completely insane.
Apple has developed its own iPhone. own Bitcoin will be presented to users in a very simple and easy way. There will be the new generation of Bitcoin users for whom Bitcoin is totally normal — not threatening, intimidating or frightening.
Corva: The same way that using WhatsApp or Uber is normal now…
Fernandez: You’re absolutely right. Bitcoin is going to get boring.
“This article is not financial advice.”
“Always do your own research before making any type of investment.”
“ItsDailyCrypto is not responsible for any activities you perform outside ItsDailyCrypto.”
Source: bitcoinmagazine.com