Azteco is helping millions of people buy Bitcoin without sharing their identity.
Company’s name: Azteco
Founder: Alexander Fernandes and Paul Ferguson
Establishment date: year 2014
Headquarters location: Santa Monica, California
Amount of Bitcoin in the Treasury: Private
Number of employees: 12
Website: https://azte.co/
Public or private? private
When Alexander “Akin” Fernandez first conceptualized Azteco 10 years ago, he simply wanted to make it easier to obtain Bitcoin. He wanted to allow people to purchase Bitcoin as seamlessly as purchasing gift cards, so he developed a system that would allow people to purchase prepaid Bitcoin vouchers for just $10.
Azteco vouchers are currently available in over 190 countries for purchase online or in-store for cash. The biggest advantage of buying BTC through Azteco vouchers is the fact that you don’t have to reveal your identity, not to mention that the voucher purchasing process is quick and easy. Azteco offers both on-chain and Lightning functionality, giving users the choice to redeem BTC on the Bitcoin native chain or the Lightning Network, a layer 2 payments network built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.
By Fernandez’s estimates, more than a million people have already purchased Azteco vouchers. But his aspirations go far beyond the already impressive number of vouchers sold. He aims for Azteco to serve its customer base 30 times more, as Azteco does its part in “normalizing” Bitcoin.
A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, appears below.
Frank Korba: Where did you get your Azteco inspiration?
Aquin Fernandes: It comes from my experience that I found it very difficult to get Bitcoin. I realized it didn’t have to be this way. You can use familiar systems like top-up vouchers that billions of people use to top up their phones and apply that process to earning Bitcoin. All we have to do is build the software and start deploying it. Then it should work properly. And lo and behold, it does.
Corba: Did you have a specific customer base in mind when designing Azteco?
Fernandez: Yes, I had myself in mind. I wanted to be able to earn Bitcoin without any fuss or effort. I wanted to go to the supermarket and buy $20 worth of Bitcoin and put it straight into my wallet. And I am not unique. I could see that there were others like me who could understand the offer and ease of use and would take to it like a duck to water.
Inventions often come about because people solve problems for themselves, rather than as a means to get rich or solve their own problems. And because people are similar, they solve other people’s problems too.
Corba: Talk about your own experiences. I read that you haven’t had access to your bank in a while. Is this true? If so, can you explain in more detail?
Fernandez: Well, for reasons I don’t know until now, I can’t use my banking services. When I went to “my” bank to cash the check, they couldn’t find my account in the system. I have not received any communication from them in writing or in any way. Suddenly my bank account disappeared. So for many years after that, I couldn’t use credit cards or anything that other people in the West take for granted.
This taught me a very, very big lesson about how difficult it is to do anything in the 21st century if you don’t have access to banking facilities. You can forget about online shopping. You can forget about the convenience of going to the store and paying with a card. All of that disappears.
So when I was working on Azteco, it became clear what a powerful tool this was going to be. This is because with Bitcoin you cannot receive banking services from third parties. You have control over your synthetic currency.
Corba: We’ve heard the term “synthetic currency” used before, and we’ve discussed how Bitcoin should not be referred to as real money. Why is it important that we do this?
Fernandez: It matters because it’s true. Bitcoin is not money, it is a database. Can I use it for money? of course. It can be used for very, very good money. It’s a good simulation for money. But it doesn’t have to be money to be useful.
Additionally, calling it Bitcoin money would inappropriately overlay or overlook Bitcoin any regulations imposed by countries on real money, making it difficult to use and slowing its spread. Therefore, it is very important to tell the truth about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is often misunderstood as money, so it took too long for Bitcoin to penetrate every nook and cranny.
WhatsApp reached 1 billion users in four and a half years. This is the kind of spread to people’s phones that we would expect if the rails to Bitcoin were frictionless, as was the case with WhatsApp.
The fact that Bitcoin hasn’t reached that number of people means there’s a problem with the way people think about Bitcoin, so it’s important that we think about Bitcoin correctly.
Corba: How many people is Azteco reaching? Put another way, how many vouchers did Azteco sell in the third or fourth quarter of 2023?
Fernandez: There is no real number called CEO, not CFO. But last month we had our biggest month ever. I heard this yesterday. The number of vouchers we sell is increasing, which is a direct result of increased distribution and changing sentiment towards Bitcoin globally.
We are the easiest way to get Bitcoin. When people discover us, they say two things. “First of all, why isn’t everything so easy?” and “Why have I never heard of this before?”
Everything works synergistically and comes together to help us become a global force for good and provide Bitcoin to those who need it most: the unbanked and those without access to financial institutions or people. We’ve reached a point where we can do it. People who do not want to become victims of financial difficulties.
The old school Bitcoin companies that have been serving people for the past 10 years all believe that Bitcoin is money and make it very difficult to get an account. Everyone is so used to the idea of having a bank account or some kind of account, whether it’s email or some other means. The immediate assumption is, “Well, you need to have an account to use this service.”
But for Bitcoin this is not true. No account required. (Some) wallet companies are doing this right. One of them is Samourai Wallet and the other is Satoshi’s Wallet, which does not require you to open an account to use your own money.
They say you can’t use Bitcoin without an account. That is exactly what they are trying to do in the EU.
Corba: We are doing this here in the United States as well with the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act (DAAMLA), a bill drafted by Elizabeth Warren.
Fernandez: These people have broken their oath. They swore to protect and support the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression for all Americans. Bitcoin is speech. This is a database in which speech is recorded, stored and transmitted from one person to another.
And lest anyone think I’m picking Democrats over Republicans, Cynthia Lummis has written a truly appalling bill that I’m more than happy to tear to shreds on my blog.
They don’t understand what their role is as public servants. A servant cannot control his master. The servant obeys the voter. It’s not their business to tell people they have to go through KYC to use Bitcoin.
Corba: When it comes to the US and Bitcoin without KYC, do you think people use Azteco because they want Bitcoin without KYC?
Fernandez: To penetrate the U.S. market, an explanation of the service is needed. People need to be deprogrammed. They don’t understand that Bitcoin is not a means to earn more fiat currency.
People need to break out of these bad habits to show that there is actually a better way to do things. A perfect example of this is WhatsApp.
Before WhatsApp, people used to pay for SMS messages, but now that’s out of the question. A similar process should happen with Bitcoin where you can send money to your family without having to go through a third party, pay exorbitant fees, reveal your identity or anything like that.
Using Bitcoin also provides other subtle benefits. Hyperinflation began to set in and people began to realize that something was wrong with their money.
People find it very difficult to find the root cause of McDonald’s prices rising. Let’s assume they figure out the cause. What can they do about it? They can go and get Bitcoin, but there are a few more steps before these people see Bitcoin as the answer.
Corba: I agree.
Fernandez: Additionally, current companies (big companies like Binance and Coinbase) are synonymous with Bitcoin. Azteco should become synonymous with earning Bitcoin. The majority of people on Earth are not rich. They don’t have $100,000 to spend on Bitcoin. They live day by day.
These people are not investors and do not have spare funds to store Bitcoin in the hope that it will rise (of course it will), so they have to hold Bitcoin as money for daily spending.
When you start talking about these things, business opportunities and models start to disappear from the conversation. Both Cynthia Lummises and Elizabeth Warrens are preventing these business models from emerging because they are regulating the unregulated.
Corba: Speaking of other companies, I heard you have good things to say about Machankura, a protocol that makes it easier for Africans to use Bitcoin with KYC and serves as a compliment to Azteco. What other companies praise Azteco in the Bitcoin space?
Fernandez: An ethical Bitcoin wallet is a nice compliment. Ethical means Samourai wallet and Satoshi wallet. I know some people don’t like Wallet of Satoshi because the backend architecture doesn’t suit their taste. But these people don’t run a business. They don’t know how difficult it is to do these things.
The latest entrant into this is the Bitkey wallet. This Bitkey wallet is truly incredible. They thought about this properly. The user interface and user experience will make everyone change their game.
I’ve been saying for a long time that someone like Apple, Microsoft, or another company will get into Bitcoin and bring all their user experience thinking to the Bitcoin usage process. Many companies today don’t think about user experience.
Jack Dorsey’s Bitkey was such a shock to many people that they realized the idea that we can’t keep doing what we want to do and expect people to accept it – that is, we need to write down a mnemonic first. You have received your first transaction. It’s absolutely crazy.
If Apple develops its own Bitcoin wallet or clones one of the Bitcoin wallets, Bitcoin will be exposed to people in a very understandable and easy-to-spend way. There will be a new generation of completely normal Bitcoin users who will not find Bitcoin intimidating, intimidating, or scary.
Corba: The same way using WhatsApp or Uber is now common.
Fernandez: That’s exactly right. Bitcoin must be boring.
