Alex Agut talks HandCash Connect, going keyless and more on Bitstocks podcast

HandCash, one of the most active companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem globally, has recently gone keyless, developed a first-of-its-kind in-store payments system and launched HandCash Connect. Founder and CEO Alex Agut was on the latest edition of the Bitstocks podcast where he talked about these developments, what the company has in store for the future and why 2021 is a uniquely prime year for Bitcoin to take over the world.

Should #BitcoinSV even compete in the #cryptocurrency arena?

In today’s #ConsciousConversations @btchudson talks to @handcashapp's @apagut.

📺Watch on the Bitstocks Podcast👉 https://t.co/Fj7aJXReHR#DataEconomy #Blockchain #Bitcoin #censorship #SocialMedia #COVID19 #AI pic.twitter.com/15I1jEgnmO

— Bitstocks (@Bitstocks_) January 21, 2021

One of the most groundbreaking developments by the company has been the HandCash Connect SDK. After announcing it in January 2020, the company finally launched it towards the end of the year. Agut reiterated the company’s message regarding the motivation behind the SDK: “creating better apps, faster.”

“We needed to make the SDK way more user friendly. Any developer who doesn’t even have any knowledge about Bitcoin can implement nanopayments as a revenue stream for their app,” he told Bitstocks CEO and founder, and the podcast moderator, Michael Hudson.

He added, “We are 100% focused on making Connect for non-Bitcoiners so they don’t have to Bitcoin. That’s the mantra we have.”

HandCash also went keyless with the release of version 2.5. The move was considered drastic by some at the time. But as Agut revealed, his company’s transparency regarding its decision gave most of its users confidence in the move. The motivation for keyless was the company’s desire to give users access to their money, without the company accessing these funds.

HandCash team has made it their mission to keep learning and improving their services, Agut said. One of the most recent learning experiences was through Haste, an easy-to-play game that has taken the Bitcoin world by storm. The game proved how much more is possible regarding nanopayments on Bitcoin SV, Agut stated.

The HandCash team has been focusing on building a great product. However, Agut believes the company has laid down the groundwork to become profitable this year. He told Hudson:

“We have everything necessary [to become profitable]. If all the pieces that we have in mind are in place by summer or so, the second part of this year should be all about attacking mainstream.”

Agut also weighed in on the misguided civil wars between different factions in the digital currency ecosystem. He believes that these wars are a great disservice as they distract Bitcoiners from facing the real enemy—the legacy systems.

For the Bitcoin SV community, this is the time to build products that can challenge the mainstream giants. Agut believes that the BSV community has slacked off in recent years under the notion that since BSV is superior, the users will come.

“The world is not waiting for Bitcoin to be ready. I know most people think that ‘it’s great technology, and we’ve already won, and we don’t need to do anything about it, and it’s a matter of giving it time.’ […] Technologies and trends have their time. I’m very optimistic about what Bitcoin can bring to the world.”