For CEO of Crypta, Bitcoin is a solution to an emergency, not a simple preference.
Agustin believes that Bitcoin’s true bullrun has not yet arrived.
For Agustín Kassis, creator of Crypta – a community in Argentina for adepts to the creation of Satoshi Nakamoto – there is a big difference between a bitcoiner and a Bitcoin (BTC) investor. As he said in an interview with Cryptonotics, that approach marks a deep ideological division.
«The investor is waiting for Bitcoin to rise to sell it and win in dollars. He is not interested in ‘onboardear’ [integrar] People only talk about that if you are winning or if you ask you, but you will not insist. Instead, a bitcoiner is an activist, someone who dreams and thinks of Bitcoin all the time, ”said Kassis.
That conviction not only defines your vision of the ecosystem, but also its way of life and the mission of the project it leads.
Programmer from the age of eleven, Agustín met Bitcoin in 2011, when his price barely exceeded the dollarin contrast to the 120,000 dollars surrounding today. It was in 2013 when, seeing that it had multiplied by 60, it began to take it seriously.
He then immersed himself in an ecosystem still incipient, without exchanges or possibility of using credit cards. “I ended up connecting to the local community through mail lists, doing P2P, but I realized that it was a system that did not climb,” he recalls.
In that context, Kassis founded Coinmelon, one of the first exchanges in Argentina, and was part of a shared space in the Retiro area, in Buenos Aires, where several startups lived in the sector.
Although the enthusiasm was great and came to hold meetings with managers to do everything legally, at that time the banks closed their accounts. «We threw us five bank accounts. There was a circular against anything related to Bitcoin. We demoralize ourselves ».
Then, that rebel spirit found a new channel: the Crypta, born between 2020 and 2021, which also came to respond to the progress of a narrative that, according to Agustín, was increasingly remote from the original Bitcoin values.
«I saw that the libertarian principles were being lost. Everything revolved around prices, to become a millionaire, to the Ponzis. I was over and said: ‘Not in my watch‘ [no ante mis ojos]”He explained.
«I came to events such as the Bitcoin Pizza Day and my head exploded: the ‘cryptobros’ had armed an Token Gated event with POA (Proof of Attendance), where it could not be paid with Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Pizza Day was stolen! A normal bitcoiner could not enter without a weird token ».
Agustín Kassis, CEO of Lacrypta.
Little by little, Crypta was transforming into a community with more than 2,400 members in Discord, active presence in social networks, events and live broadcasts. There, Bitcoin is studied holistically, covering its technology, ideology, history and future projection.
Currently, the Crypta, which has a space in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, promotes a network of Bitcoiners communities inspired by the German model of Einundzwanzig (term that means “twenty -one” in German).
In Latin America, this initiative translates into the delivery of nodes, POS terminals (physical devices to collect with Bitcoin) and NFC cards (cards with wireless communication chip that allow payments just by bringing them closer to the reader) to ten communities selected by more than twenty interviewees, with the aim of promoting circular economies.
In Latin America, we want to connect to all communities. We interviewed 26 communities of circular economies, as in El Salvador or Bitcoin Beach, where people live with Bitcoin. We chose the 10 most committed and we are going to send a Bitcoin node, a Lightning node, 200 Customized NFC cards and 15 pos to pay with Tap. The idea is to facilitate business onboarding. You cannot convince a merchant talking about decentralization, because he doesn’t care. You give him a post, you tell him ‘It is a more means of payment’, and voila. When you want to learn more, you will come alone. That is the crusade: connect and empower Latin America with Bitcoin.
Agustín Kassis, CEO of Lacrypta.
Kassis’s vision of Bitcoin’s adoption is clear: it must be functional. Therefore, pay salaries in BTC and think of satoshis, not in Argentine dollars or pesos or any other fiat currency. Its approach goes beyond savings, because it seeks that Bitcoin is used as a real exchange means, especially in countries with high inflation and financial restrictions.
«In the Third World, resistance to censorship is a real value. Here people start using lightning and then learn to keep their on-chain funds. It is the other way around what happens in rich countries, ”he says.
On the financing of Crypta, Agustín explained that The project is mainly sustained with private funds, voluntary contributions and what was collected in Hackathons.
In addition, they are exploring more sustainable business models, such as the sale of POS terminals with the software included. According to the entrepreneur, they are very careful with resources and they make everything firm the spirit of free software, since all their work is open and accessible to the community.
A look set in Argentina
Although the Bitcoin specialist is enthusiastic about the future of the ecosystem in Argentina and Latin America, it also referred to the recent controversy of the Libra case, which occurred under the government of Javier Milei.
For the CEO of the Lacrypta, what happened “was shameful” and considers “fair” that those who invested large sums of money have lostsince, in his words, “they were cryptobros playing the chair game, wanting to get money back to us.”
Despite what happened, Agustín does not lose hope that, in the future, the Government decides to advise itself properly on cryptoactive matters.
Regretted that letter Exposed below that the Crypta sent President Javier Milei, offering collaboration in education and advice, he has not received an answer. But it made it clear that the proposal is still valid. “We are available to what the government needs,” he clarified.
His vision of Bitcoin’s future is clearly optimistic, so much that is convinced that the real Bullrun has not yet begun.
«We are entering an arms race by BTC. The big ones are buying without brake. The current numbers are beginners. In this cycle we will see a Omega Candlea huge leap, ”he said.
«The bitcoiners feel that we are in a historical moment, not only for a paradigm shift, but for a redistribution of wealth as it never saw. It is an emergency, not a preference. If you stay in Fíat, you are in danger.
