Since its founding two years in the past, NoOnes, a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, has achieved loads in a brief area of time. As a visionary entrepreneur, Ray Youssef, NoOnes CEO, helps prepared the ground within the evolving world of crypto. Utilizing Bitcoin as a software, Youssef and his group consider it’ll carry empowerment to the International South.
On this unique interview, Rebecca Campbell, crypto content material editor at CoinJournal, spoke with Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO at NoOnes, to debate NoOnes imaginative and prescient and the way it and Bitcoin are empowering the International South. Youssef dives into the challenges they face, a monetary apartheid in Africa, political pressures from the West, the limitless alternatives for the International South, and the way the connection between crypto and folks is evolving.
Rebecca Campbell (RC): Are you able to inform me about NoOnes and the place the identify got here from?
Ray Youssef (RY): NoOnes is an excellent app for the International South. We began as a peer-to-peer crypto market, however we all the time deliberate on being far more than that. In lower than two years we’ve added a spot change and a digital VISA card, and we’re about to launch our NoOnes present card. We’re additionally a messenger app and you may even top-up your cell phone. NoOnes is constructed for the folks of the International South, so we don’t have the issues of a US-based enterprise making an attempt to serve folks within the International South.
The way in which NoOnes bought its identify is a comic story. When NoOnes was only a dream, a collection of brainstorming classes with the fellows who helped get it began, I’d been having these random ideas about our household canine who had died about 15 years earlier than. Her identify was Heidie, however my mom gave her a nickname – Noons.
I beloved that canine and for some motive, she was continually in my ideas round that point, so in the future as a joke I stated, “We should always name the corporate Noons.” I wrote it down on a bit of paper and noticed that it learn like NoOnes, and I assumed it was excellent. It captures the reality about what we wished to do with a decentralized market. Your cash is NoOnes enterprise. Your information is NoOnes enterprise. Your small business is NoOnes enterprise.
RC: What are your imaginative and prescient and targets with NoOnes?
RY: Ever since I noticed the facility of crypto and peer-to-peer, my imaginative and prescient and targets haven’t modified. There are lots of people in crypto who wish to get wealthy, however that’s by no means actually motivated me. I noticed crypto as a leveler, an equalizer. And I noticed the way it may make a distinction to folks continually left behind by the monetary system as a result of their cash is the improper shade or their passport is the improper kind.
As quickly as I noticed the potential of crypto and peer-to-peer working collectively to create this eco-system that permits any type of cash to grow to be one other type of cash, I knew it was a mechanism that would finish monetary apartheid. I name it monetary apartheid as a result of that’s what the worldwide monetary system is – it discriminates towards folks due to who they’re and the place they arrive from. I’ve recognized that for a very long time. With NoOnes, we will change that as a result of we’re primarily based within the International South and tailor our merchandise to swimsuit the individuals who want them most.
My imaginative and prescient is to see a whole bunch of cities like Dubai everywhere in the International South, with folks buying and selling freely, constructing wealth and making their lives and their household’s lives higher.
RC: Are you able to speak concerning the position NoOnes and Bitcoin will play in empowering the International South?
RY: To start with, we’re primarily based right here. Meaning we now have boots on the bottom and might speak to the individuals who use our market to purchase crypto, commerce present playing cards, make funds, remittances, no matter. Our merchandise should not primarily based on a Western mannequin after which compelled on folks as a result of they haven’t any different possibility.
Take KYC, for instance. After I was within the US, we frequently needed to file a suspicious exercise report and lock a International South buyer’s funds when, for no matter motive, they have been flagged on the system. Then we needed to wait till the American regulators bought again to us to say, “Okay, you possibly can let these guys go.” Generally, we needed to wait years till we may launch a buyer’s funds.
In the meantime, these folks, who did nothing improper, needed to wait till the regulator stated they might entry their very own cash. Within the meantime, they needed to discover cash from elsewhere to cowl what the regulators locked away. Even the banks can’t do this, however Uncle Sam can. It was loopy. Why ought to we put our clients by that type of ache?
The US nonetheless controls Africa to such an extent that it’s troublesome for nations to commerce with one another. That’s a part of the monetary apartheid I discuss. Look what occurred lately with Binance. A brand new CEO is available in and the very first thing they do is disable Pan-African commerce on Binance peer-to-peer. Kenyans can solely commerce with Kenyans and Ghanaians can solely commerce with Ghanaians.
That’s the precise coverage the US has been utilizing to maintain Africa and the remainder of the International South poor. We’re altering that. I spend a variety of my time advocating for Pan-African commerce. It’s a vital a part of making the International South rich. Think about if some man working a enterprise in New York couldn’t commerce with a enterprise in New Jersey. Would any American put up with that? Why ought to Africans?
RC: What are the challenges and alternatives you face in attaining this for Bitcoin to succeed in its full potential within the International South?
RY: There are many challenges going through us, however the largest one is coping with the political strain from the West. Anybody who goes towards the West and their central bankers goes to be resisted. The governments and elites who run the worldwide monetary system are robust as a result of they’ve a collection of sliders, a bunch of levers they will push and pull to manage all the things.
They’ll pull a method and say, “Oh, Nigeria, you haven’t been listening to us, so we’re going to take your slider all the best way right down to zero.” They’ll transfer these levers at any time, in order that they have super energy, and so they can management the economies of the world. They’ll punish or reward a market, even complete economies, and we have to offset this.
Crypto and peer-to-peer are the offsets, and that’s why the West has such an issue with crypto. It’s why they put individuals who don’t comply with their mannequin in jail.
The alternatives within the International South are limitless. Africa has the fastest-growing inhabitants of any continent. It has 1.5 billion folks, and the subsequent 25 years will add nearly one other billion. There’s a youth unemployment drawback proper now, however I see that as a chance. I’ve met so many younger Africans who’re savvy and dynamic and so they all wish to succeed. I’ve seen a lot of them use our market to earn money, to begin companies, and to alter their lives.
India additionally has wonderful alternatives, as does Latin America. There are such a lot of alternatives in all of those locations for folks to create companies by piggybacking on our platform – that’s one of many biggest successes of NoOnes, I believe. We will’t have success until we assist others have success, and the ethics of that’s largely lacking within the company world right this moment.
Which firms are giving again 50% of their earnings to the individuals who use their merchandise? We’re doing that at NoOnes. We’ve bonuses, incentives, and a Companion Program that rewards the individuals who assist us develop as a result of we wish folks to assist us unfold the phrase concerning the energy of crypto and peer-to-peer. We want the International South to know that it doesn’t must accept a Western mannequin that doesn’t swimsuit its wants.
If we add up all of these issues – dynamic, savvy younger people who find themselves hardworking and able to grasp alternatives, a common container for cash that can be a retailer of wealth, and the NoOnes market that offers the International South entry to finance and free commerce – we are going to attain the complete potential of the International South, and I believe it could actually occur rapidly. Most individuals within the West can be astonished by it.
RC: How is NoOnes totally different from what you probably did at Paxful?
RY: Paxful had a significant drawback – it was primarily based within the US. I’ve already talked about KYC and all the issues we encountered making an attempt to assist folks within the International South as a US firm. You possibly can’t do it – and it’s getting worse. Take a look at what occurred to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, (the previous CEO of Binance). He went to jail. Look at what happened to Pavel Durov, the Telegram CEO – he went to jail the minute his aircraft landed in France.
I had the identical imaginative and prescient at Paxful that I’ve now, and possibly it took me too lengthy to understand that I couldn’t obtain my mission of working a US firm. However now the shackles are off. Nothing is holding us again now that we’re primarily based within the International South.
I realized years in the past that my precedence needs to be to serve my customers, my clients. They’ll fireplace the CEO. I realized that serving to my dad and mom run a newsstand on Columbus Circle in New York Metropolis once I was a child.
Within the US, the primary precedence for many firms is to serve the federal government, then, in the event that they’re blissful, you possibly can assist your clients. That’s not proper. And I received’t do this. We noticed what occurred with Binance. They gave up their person information to the (Israeli Protection Forces) IDF and a whole bunch of individuals misplaced hundreds of thousands of {dollars} – and a few of them have been killed. Examine the NoOnes privateness coverage to the Binance privateness coverage. We received’t quit our person information. I couldn’t say that once I was CEO of Paxful.
RC: How do you see NoOnes evolving within the subsequent 5-10 years?
RY: NoOnes goes to get larger, that’s for certain. Generally I’ve to remind myself that we didn’t exist two years in the past as a result of we’ve come thus far in such a short while, however that is solely the beginning. Individuals may consider us as a crypto peer-to-peer market, however we’re all the time including new merchandise, making current ones higher, and we take heed to our customers so we may give them what they want.
I discuss our enterprise as an ecosystem as a result of that’s the easiest way to explain how we’re evolving. We created a market for crypto and present playing cards, we added a spot change and different merchandise, and we feed earnings again into that ecosystem. Persons are constructing their companies on prime of our platform.
Expats working abroad ship cash residence and understand our platform is a greater, quicker, and cheaper means of doing it than utilizing a conventional cash changer – so they begin doing it for his or her associates and create a aspect hustle. Somebody must make a fee overseas, however they don’t have a checking account, in order that they use our platform – they see how easy it’s, so they begin a enterprise doing the identical for different folks. And all of it feeds again into the ecosystem.
Think about all these companies taking the place of the standard banks and cash changers – the wealth stays within the International South as a substitute of lining the pockets of all of the executives working for banks and monetary establishments within the West. That’s a part of the explanation they don’t like what we do.
Think about when all of the folks within the International South understand how straightforward it’s to make these modifications. How straightforward it’s to cease the drain on the assets of the International South – it’s been occurring for hundreds of years and it has to cease, and it’ll. In 5 years, possibly much less, NoOnes can be main that drive and the International South can be on the best way to turning into a superpower.
RC: How do you see the connection between crypto and the broader inhabitants evolving?
RY: That’s an amazing query as a result of it’s the entrance line within the battle happening in the meanwhile. Earlier than I understood crypto I assumed it was simply “Web humorous cash.” Most individuals nonetheless suppose that means now as a result of they don’t perceive it. I’m undecided governments perceive it that effectively, however they understand it’s a menace to the established order. That’s why they tried to cease it, and that’s why they’re making an attempt to manage it now.
The true energy on the earth is the one which controls the cash system. The folks in energy have levers they use to maintain us in our place, and the style by which we reverse engineer it have to be defined very clearly and logically for folks if we’re to achieve getting them to assist us repair the present state of humanity.
In easy phrases, I’m speaking a couple of foreign money struggle, and once I say foreign money I imply something that could be a retailer of worth and will be traded. Ultimately, the folks can be received over to crypto as a result of its energy can’t be denied – even governments acknowledge this now. Some nations banned it, then they realized its utility, and now they’re making an attempt to manage it. Crypto isn’t going away.
The true query is whether or not the essence of it will get destroyed within the strategy of being accepted by the broader inhabitants. Crypto was designed to be trustless and permissionless – which means we don’t must belief some authorities or company to place confidence in its worth.
RC: What’s NoOnes specializing in in the meanwhile?
RY: Our focus is on our three core values – everybody eats, bullish schooling, and revolutionary transparency.
I’ve already talked about giving again 50% of our earnings and our companion program, and that’s a part of what we imply by “everybody eats.” I don’t wish to get wealthy on the expense of the individuals who use our merchandise. Some folks chuckle at me once I say I’m on a mission, however I’ve been saying it for greater than a decade as a result of it’s true. We received’t be blissful if we’re profitable and others round us should not, in order that’s why everybody eats is essential.
One other precept is revolutionary transparency. A lot of companies discuss being clear, however most of them don’t comply with by. This is the reason we get issues like we noticed with FTX. NoOnes is totally different. Anybody who needs to see the enterprise information I see about NoOnes can see it by wanting on the CEO Dashboard on our app.
Proper now, our largest focus is on schooling. I’ve talked concerning the alternatives within the International South, however these alternatives received’t imply something if folks don’t learn about them and grow to be educated about how crypto can assist them clear up issues. We created the NoOnes Academy so folks can study not solely commerce profitably, but in addition how they will do it safely.
Some folks may wish to make a fee or ship cash residence, however they’re petrified of crypto as a result of they’ve heard nasty tales within the media. We wish to educate them in order that they perceive how straightforward it really works and the way a lot utility it has. Some folks may simply use it in a small means – serving to them pay for one thing as a result of they don’t have a VISA card or a checking account. Others could be expert and savvy, however they’re unemployed and so they’re seeking to earn cash to pay the payments or to begin a enterprise – they may discover ways to commerce present playing cards or crypto by the NoOnes Academy.
If sufficient folks grow to be educated about how our tremendous app works, the International South will change dramatically.
RC: What are your plans for NoOnes when it comes to development and improvement?
RY: I’ve already talked about Dubai, nevertheless it’s an amazing instance of the way forward for the International South. Lots of people suppose Dubai has had huge development due to oil, however that’s simply not true. Sheikh Mohammed made commerce straightforward and the atmosphere business-friendly, and fairly quickly the cash flowed into Dubai like a river. The cash that got here in was then fed again into improvement and we will see the consequence right this moment.
My imaginative and prescient is to see cities like Dubai throughout the International South, with NoOnes main the best way. We are going to present the infrastructure, the schooling and the alternatives, and which means being on the bottom, listening to folks so we may give them what they should assist them develop. We’ve achieved it with our peer-to-peer market, our spot change, a digital VISA card, and present playing cards – and new merchandise are coming.
We’re a peer-review credit score rating so customers will get a ranking that can be utilized to supply financing for start-ups and enterprise homeowners. We wish to fine-tune our messaging perform as a result of that’s an effective way to draw folks we will educate on the advantages of crypto.
We want extra folks to assist us develop, so we’ll be hiring folks on the bottom wherever we do enterprise. Already our customers are serving to us by making content material to assist educate their fellow residents. Our development and improvement all the time revolve round work. Free commerce permits the cash to stream and that places folks to work to allow them to create their wealth. I really consider in common wealth, however that solely occurs when the roadblocks to development are eliminated. To try this we should have the folks behind us, and that’s why schooling is so essential.
Our objective was for NoOnes to have a billion customers inside seven years, and if we do that we’ll carry the International South nearer to the wealth it’s been denied for thus lengthy.
