Company Name: upac
Founders: Francisco Chavarria (CEO) and Carlos Chida (CTO)
Establishment date: March 2023
Headquarters location: Austin, Texas
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 Strike CEO Jack Mallers passionately deliver his speech. Now the famous keynote speech During which he revealed that El Salvador is planning to make Bitcoin a legal currency.
That moment sparked something inside Chavarria.
“It was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my career,” Chavarria told Bitcoin Magazine.
“I knew I had to do something in Bitcoin next. It was the seed,” he added.
Two years after starting, Chavarria found himself putting his career as a SaaS consultant on hold to blueprint the project. upaca neo-bank and investment app focused on Bitcoin, aims to serve the people of its native Mexico. (Users outside Mexico can also use the non-custodial Yopaki wallet for lighting.)
Since then, he and his co-founder, Carlos Chida, have worked hard to revive Ubaki, including participating in Wolf’s Bitcoin Accelerator In efforts to make Yopaki as sophisticated 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 Yupaque comes from ancient Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Aztecs,” Chavarria explained.
“The Aztecs lived in the central region of what is today Mexico, and they are responsible for some of the largest pyramids in all of Latin America. The center of this historical place is called Teotihuacan, meaning place of the gods,” he added.
“The name itself, if I were to translate it into English, closely means ‘the pursuit of happiness’.”
Judging by the name alone, it’s clear that Chavarria views Ubaki as more than just another business endeavor — he wants it to have a profound impact on those who use it.
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 Bitcoin user.
Dream forecast for 2025 for Bitcoin in Mexico 🇲🇽😶🌫️
1. Bitcoin adoption rises in Mexico.
2. Mexican Bitcoin startups attract global investors. Thanks to El Salvador’s influence, Mexico has become Latin America’s leader in Bitcoin innovation.
3. Deepening the integration between the peso and Bitcoin.
– Francisco Chavarria (@FranciscoBTC) December 31, 2024
Bitcoin in the Mexican context
When Bitcoin is brought up in the context of Latin America and other developing regions, it is often referred to as a “unbanked” tool.
However, Mexico’s banking system is “very advanced,” according to Chavarria.
“The infrastructure has been created to enable people to access banking services,” he explained.
“It may not be the same banking services that we have in the United States (where Chavarria currently resides), but, for example, in Mexico, there are stores like July 11 called OXXOs, and they are everywhere,” he added. “Anyone can access OXXO.” With an ID, and within 20 minutes, he can checkout using a Visa card and an app.”
“It’s not quite a bank, but it does provide access to payment paths,” he added.
These Visa cards charge high fees, Chavarria continued.
“They are very predatory in that sense,” he said.
Therefore, Yopaki provides its Mexican users with access to three different fiat accounts: a Mexican peso account, a US dollar account, and a Bitcoin Lightning (non-custodial) wallet. Each of these accounts allows its users to make transactions at lower rates than the mentioned Visa cards. (In 2025, Yopaki will also enable its Mexican users to buy stocks, ETFs, and other securities as well.)
By offering a Bitcoin wallet alongside traditional currency accounts, Chavarria hopes to legitimize Bitcoin in the eyes of its users. However, he also feels that Ubaki has some work to do in terms of helping Mexicans feel comfortable using Bitcoin, which is why he and his team are doing everything they can to make the process fun.
Make Bitcoin fun with Lottery
Lottery It is a favorite pastime of Mexican people. It’s comparable to Bingo but with pictures instead of numbers.
Chavarria and the Yopaki team incorporated it into the app using Bitcoin – concepts and characters like the Lightning Network and Max Keizer appear in Yopaki’s version of the game.
“When it comes to Mexico, people think of tequila, tacos, mariachi, etc LotteryChavarria said.
“There’s no negative connotation to the game. That’s why the feedback we’ve gotten over the last couple of months has been, ‘Man, I didn’t realize bitcoin was fun.’”
Users earn sats as they play Lotería within the app. When they earn 1,000 satta or more, they can learn through the app how to transfer that satta from Yopaki’s custody to theirs, all through the Yopaki app.
upac Collaborated with Breeze To provide its users with a non-custodial Lightning wallet that does not require its users to deal with the hassle of managing a Lightning channel.
Jobaki + Breeze
“One of the main reasons we chose Breez was because we knew about their implementation of Node SDK through Liquid “Before it becomes public,” Chavarria said.
“We know that channel management is a major barrier for a lot of people when using an app like this. The moment you put up roadblocks, the experience becomes intimidating. This is too much,” he added.
“So, by offering a product where users can make an instant transaction, that magic that we all have as Bitcoin miners can be brought to the masses.”
Chavarria went on to share that the Yopaki Lightning Wallet is so easy to use that his mother-in-law now uses (and enjoys) the product.
He is excited to bring such a product to the Mexican market because, as he puts it, Mexicans have “had a hard time” with custodial solutions in the past.
“It is important to let users know that we are not holding their money,” Chavarria said.
Prioritize Bitcoin education
The Yopaki team not only encourages and prioritizes self-sovereignty, but also educates its users about Bitcoin, as it does not diminish their curiosity and ability to learn.
“We have curated content that includes lessons on general topics such as ‘What is money?’ “Not just Bitcoin, but money,” Chavarria explained.
“They’re little lessons that take one to two minutes to complete. Ultimately, it’s about creating the curiosity that I feel and I think a lot of us feel the old system didn’t really care about,” he added.
The educational component within the application also distinguishes it from its competitors in the region.
“Bitso is the biggest player not only in Mexico but in the whole of Latin America, and we have a lot of respect for what they did, but they turned into a casino with tokens and NFTs and all that,” Chavarria shared. “We think they have really downplayed the curiosity of their users and played up the degenerate side of gambling addiction instead.”
Directions from Wolf
Given how cool, calm, and collected Chavarria seemed when I spoke to him, I had the impression that the now-incarnated vision of Yubaki came to him with relative ease, perhaps even in a flash of light.
But he told me otherwise.
It’s clear that he and Chida’s experience at Wolf’s Bitcoin startup incubator pushed them out of their comfort zone and into a state of mind that helped them make Yopaki as unique as it is.
“It was one of the most important and meaningful experiences we could have,” Chavarria said of his time at Wolf. “The type of feedback we received and the type of strategy sessions we had was tough in a good way.”
Chavarria explained how he and Chida actually entered Wolf thinking they had already formulated a strong vision for Yopaki, but it was the guidance they received in the program that led them to create many of the features that set the apps apart. For others like it.
“Having people like Kelly Brewster (CEO of Wolf), who has years of experience at Goldman Sachs, and Ross Stevens (founder of Wolf) really sitting down and asking the tough questions and pushing you to the limits, was powerful,” Chavarria said. “They really made us think: Do you understand that what you’re doing is hard?” He made us explain how we would implement our plan.
Next year
As previously mentioned, Yopaki will enable its Mexican users to start investing in traditional assets next year, and starting next month, it will offer users Bitcoin exchanges as well.
Furthermore, it will issue its users with debit cards that they can use to spend pesos, dollars or bitcoins. Chavarria says it plans to offer rewards when users purchase traditional assets or bitcoin through the app.
With so much going down the pike, Chavarria is in good spirits.
“I’m grateful we’re doing this,” he said.
“It was really fun to build the bear – and now the good times are coming.”
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