Company Name: Yopak
Founders: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)
Founding date: March 2023
Headquarters Location: Austin, Texas
Number of employees: Four full time; a part time
Website: https://www.yopaki.com/
Public or Private? Private
In 2021, Francisco Chavarría was among the bitcoin 2021 audience and watched as Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately delivered his now famous keynote speech during which he revealed that El Salvador planned to make bitcoin legal tender.
That moment ignited something inside Chavarría.
“It was like nothing I had ever experienced in my professional career,” Chavarría told bitcoin magazine.
“I knew I had to do something in the bitcoin space after that. “It was the seed,” he added.
Two years later, Chavarría found himself putting his career as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) consultant on hold to draw up plans for Yopaka bitcoin-focused neobank and investment app, intended to serve the people of its home country, Mexico. (Users outside of Mexico can also use Yopaki's non-custodial Lighting wallet.)
Since then, he and his co-founder, Carlos Chida, have worked hard to bring Yopaki to life, including participating in Wolf's bitcoin Accelerator Program in an effort to make Yopaki as cutting-edge and dynamic as possible.
But before we get to that part of the story, let's start with the cultural origin of the platform's name.
What's in a name?
“The name Yopaki comes from the ancient Nahuatl language, the language spoken by the Aztecs,” Chavarría explained.
“The Aztecs lived in the central region of what is now Mexico, and are responsible for some of the largest pyramids in all of Latin America. The center of this historic place is called Teotihuacán, 'the place of the gods,'” he added.
“The name itself, if translated into English, more closely means “the pursuit of happiness.”
Judging by the name alone, it's clear that Chavarría sees Yopaki as more than just another business: he wants it to have a profound impact on those who use it.
And he will need the app to have such an impact if he and his team want to succeed in their mission: turning every Mexican into a Bitcoiner.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet”>
Dream predictions 2025 for bitcoin in Mexico
1. bitcoin adoption increases in Mexico.
2. Mexican bitcoin startups attract global investors. With the influence of El Salvador, Mexico becomes the Latin American leader in bitcoin innovation.
3. Peso-bitcoin integration deepens.…
— Francisco Chavarria (@FranciscoBTC) <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/FranciscoBTC/status/1874158673091842462?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 31, 2024
bitcoin in the Mexican context
When bitcoin is mentioned in the context of Latin America and other developing regions, it is often referred to as a tool to “bank the unbanked.”
However, Mexico's banking system is “quite advanced,” according to Chavarría.
“The infrastructure has been built so that people have access to banking,” he explained.
“It may not be the same banking that we have in the United States (where Chavarría currently resides), but, for example, in Mexico, there are stores like 7/11 called OXXO, and they are everywhere. “Anyone can enter an OXXO with an ID and in 20 minutes they can leave with a Visa card and an application,” he added.
“It's not exactly a bank, but it provides access to payment methods,” he added.
However, Chavarría went on to share that these Visa cards charge high fees.
“They're very predatory in that sense,” he said.
So, Yopaki provides its Mexican users with access to three different monetary accounts: a Mexican peso account, a US dollar account, and a (non-custodial) bitcoin Lightning wallet. Each of these accounts allows its users to make transactions at lower rates than those Visa cards. (In 2025, Yopaki will also allow its Mexican users to buy stocks, ETFs and other securities.)
By offering a bitcoin wallet along with accounts for traditional currencies, Chavarria hopes to legitimize bitcoin in the eyes of its users. However, he also feels that Yopaki has work to do to help Mexicans feel comfortable using bitcoin, which is why he and his team are doing everything they can to make the process enjoyable.
Making bitcoin fun Lottery
Lottery It is a favorite pastime of the Mexican people. It is comparable to Bingo but with images instead of numbers.
Chavarria and the Yopaki team included it in the app with a bitcoin slant – concepts and characters like Lightning Network and Max Keizer appear in the Yopaki version of the game.
“When it comes to Mexico, people think that tequila, tacos, mariachi and Lottery”Chavarría said.
“The game does not have any negative connotations. Because of this, the feedback we've gotten over the past few months has been, 'Man, I didn't realize bitcoin was fun,'” he added.
Users earn sats while playing the Lottery within the app. Once they have earned 1000 sats or more, they will be able to learn through the app how to transfer those sats from Yopaki custody to their own, all within the Yopaki app.
Yopak <a target="_blank" href="https://medium.com/breez-technology/yopaki-mexican-culture-meets-bitcoin-with-the-breez-sdk-75b76adc75be”>teamed up with Breez to provide its users with a non-custodial Lightning wallet that does not require its users to deal with the hassle of Lightning channel management.
Jopaki + breeze
“One of the main reasons we decided to go with Breez is that we knew about their implementation of the Nodeless SDK via Liquid before it was public,” Chavarría said.
“We know that channel management is a fundamental obstacle for many people when using an application like this. The moment you introduce obstacles, the experience becomes terrifying. “It's just too much,” he added.
“So by offering a product where users can make an immediate transaction, that magic that we have all had as Bitcoiners can be brought to the masses.”
Chavarria went on to share that Yopaki's Lightning Wallet is so easy to use that even her mother-in-law now uses (and enjoys) the product.
He is excited to bring such a product to the Mexican market because, as he said, Mexicans “have been tough” on custody solutions in the past.
“It is important that we let users know that we do not hold their funds,” Chavarría said.
Prioritizing bitcoin education
The Yopaki team not only encourages and prioritizes self-sovereignty, but also educates its users about bitcoin, as it does not underestimate their curiosity and ability to learn.
“We've curated content that includes lessons on broad topics like 'What is money?' — not just bitcoin, but money,” Chavarría explained.
“They are microlessons that take between one and 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 like the legacy system hasn't really cared,” he added.
The educational component within the application also differentiates it from its competitors in the region.
“Bitso is the biggest player not only in Mexico but in all of Latin America, and we have a lot of respect for what they have done, but they have become a casino with tokens and nfts and all that,” Chavarría shared. “We think they have really underestimated the curiosity of their users and instead simply unleashed the degenerate side of gambling addiction.”
Wolf orientation
Given how cool, calm, and collected Chavarría was when I spoke to him, I got the impression that Yopaki's now-developed vision came to him relatively easily, perhaps even in a flash of light.
But he told me the opposite.
Apparently, he and Chida's experience at Wolf's bitcoin startup incubator took them out of their comfort zone and into a state of mind that helped make Yopaki as unique a place as it is.
“It was one of the most important and meaningful experiences we could have gone through,” Chavarría said of his time at Wolf. “The type of feedback we received and the type of strategy sessions we had were, to put it kindly, brutal in a good way.”
Chavarria explained how he and Chida, in fact, entered the Wolf program thinking they had already put together a solid vision for Yopaki, but that the guidance they received in the program is what drove them to create many of the features that set the apps apart. for others like this.
“Having people like Kelly Brewster (CEO of Wolf), who has years of experience at Goldman Sachs, and Ross Stevens (founder of Wolf) really sit down and ask the tough questions and push it to the limit, it was powerful,” Chavarría said . “They made us really think, 'Do you understand that what you're doing is hard?' and made us articulate how we were going to execute our plan.”
next year
As mentioned, Yopaki will allow its Mexican users to start investing in traditional assets over the next year and, starting next month, will also offer users a bitcoin exchange.
In addition, it will issue its users debit cards with which they can spend their pesos, dollars or bitcoins. And Chavarria says he plans to offer sats rewards when users buy traditional assets or bitcoins through the app.
With so much ahead of him, Chavarría is in good spirits.
“I'm just grateful that we're doing this,” he said.
“It's been a lot of fun building the bear; now are the good times.”
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