Interview: NoOnes visionary mission for Bitcoin adoption and empowerment in the Global South

Since
its
founding
two
years
ago,
NoOnes,
a
peer-to-peer
(P2P)
platform,
has
achieved
a
lot
in
a
short
space
of
time.
As
a
visionary
entrepreneur,
Ray
Youssef,
NoOnes
CEO,
is
helping
lead
the
way
in
the
evolving
world
of
crypto.
Using
Bitcoin
as
a
tool,
Youssef
and
his
team
believe
it’ll
bring
empowerment
to
the
Global
South.

In
this
exclusive
interview,
Rebecca
Campbell,
crypto
content
editor
at
CoinJournal,
spoke
with
Ray
Youssef,
co-founder
and
CEO
at
NoOnes,
to
discuss
NoOnes
vision
and
how
it
and
Bitcoin
are
empowering
the
Global
South.
Youssef
dives
into
the
challenges
they
face,
a
financial
apartheid
in
Africa,
political
pressures
from
the
West,
the
limitless
opportunities
for
the
Global
South,
and
how
the
relationship
between
crypto
and
people
is
evolving.

Rebecca
Campbell
(RC):
Can
you
tell
me
about
NoOnes
and
where
the
name
came
from?

Ray
Youssef
(RY):
NoOnes
is
a
super
app
for
the
Global
South.
We
started
as
a
peer-to-peer

crypto
marketplace,
but
we
always
planned
on
being
much
more
than
that.
In
less
than
two
years
we’ve
added
a
spot
exchange
and
a
virtual
VISA
card,
and
we’re
about
to
launch
our
NoOnes
gift
card.
We’re
also
a
messenger
app
and
you
can
even
top-up
your
mobile
phone.
NoOnes
is
built
for
the
people
of
the
Global
South,
so
we
don’t
have
the
problems
of
a
US-based
business
trying
to
serve
people
in
the
Global
South.

The
way
NoOnes
got
its
name
is
a
funny
story.
When
NoOnes
was
just
a
dream,
a
series
of
brainstorming
sessions
with
the
guys
who
helped
get
it
started,
I’d
been
having
these
random
thoughts
about
our
family
dog
who
had
died
about
15
years
before.
Her
name
was
Heidie,
but
my
mother
gave
her
a
nickname
–
Noons.

I
loved
that
dog
and
for
some
reason,
she
was
constantly
in
my
thoughts
around
that
time,
so
one
day
as
a
joke
I
said,
“We
should
call
the
company
Noons.”
I
wrote
it
down
on
a
piece
of
paper
and
saw
that
it
read
like
NoOnes,
and
I
thought
it
was
perfect.
It
captures
the
truth
about
what
we
wanted
to
do
with
a
decentralized
marketplace.
Your
money
is
NoOnes
business.
Your
data
is
NoOnes
business.
Your
business
is
NoOnes
business.

RC:
What
are
your
vision
and
goals
with
NoOnes?

RY:
Ever
since
I
realized
the
power
of
crypto
and
peer-to-peer,
my
vision
and
goals
haven’t
changed.
There
are
a
lot
of
people
in
crypto
who
want
to
get
rich,
but
that’s
never
really
motivated
me.
I
saw
crypto
as
a
leveler,
an
equalizer.
And
I
saw
how
it
could
make
a
difference
to
people
constantly
left
behind
by
the
financial
system
because
their
money
is
the
wrong
color
or
their
passport
is
the
wrong
type.

As
soon
as
I
saw
the
potential
of
crypto
and
peer-to-peer
working
together
to
create
this
eco-system
that
enables
any
form
of
money
to
become
another
form
of
money,
I
knew
it
was
a
mechanism
that
could
end
financial
apartheid.
I
call
it
financial
apartheid
because
that’s
what
the
international
financial
system
is
–
it
discriminates
against
people
because
of
who
they
are
and
where
they
come
from.
I’ve
known
that
for
a
long
time.
With
NoOnes,
we
can
change
that
because
we
are
based
in
the
Global
South
and
tailor
our
products
to
suit
the
people
who
need
them
most.

My
vision
is
to
see
hundreds
of
cities
like
Dubai
all
over
the
Global
South,
with
people
trading
freely,
building
wealth
and
making
their
lives
and
their
family’s
lives
better.

RC:
Can
you
talk
about
the
role
NoOnes
and
Bitcoin
will
play
in
empowering
the
Global
South?

RY:
First
of
all,
we
are
based
here.
That
means
we
have
boots
on
the
ground
and
can
talk
to
the
people
who
use
our
marketplace
to
buy
crypto,
trade
gift
cards,
make
payments,
remittances,
whatever.
Our
products
are
not
based
on
a
Western
model
and
then
forced
on
people
because
they
have
no
other
option.

Take
KYC,
for
example.
When
I
was
in
the
US,
we
often
had
to
file
a
suspicious
activity
report
and
lock
a
Global
South
customer’s
funds
when,
for
whatever
reason,
they
were
flagged
on
the
system.
Then
we
had
to
wait
until
the
American
regulators
got
back
to
us
to
say,
“Ok,
you
can
let
these
guys
go.”
Sometimes,
we
had
to
wait
years
until
we
could
release
a
customer’s
funds.

Meanwhile,
these
people,
who
did
nothing
wrong,
had
to
wait
until
the
regulator
said
they
could
access
their
own
money.
In
the
meantime,
they
had
to
find
money
from
somewhere
else
to
cover
what
the
regulators
locked
away.
Even
the
banks
can’t
do
that,
but
Uncle
Sam
can.
It
was
crazy.
Why
should
we
put
our
customers
through
that
kind
of
pain?

The
US
still
controls
Africa
to
such
an
extent
that
it’s
difficult
for
countries
to
trade
with
each
other.
That’s
part
of
the
financial
apartheid
I
talk
about.
Look
what
happened
recently
with

Binance.
A
new
CEO
comes
in
and
the
first
thing
they
do
is
disable
Pan-African
trade
on
Binance
peer-to-peer.
Kenyans
can
only
trade
with
Kenyans
and
Ghanaians
can
only
trade
with
Ghanaians.

That’s
the
exact
policy
the
US
has
been
using
to
keep
Africa
and
the
rest
of
the
Global
South
poor.
We
are
changing
that.
I
spend
a
lot
of
my
time
advocating
for
Pan-African
trade.
It’s
a
crucial
part
of
making
the
Global
South
wealthy.
Imagine
if
some
guy
running
a
business
in
New
York
couldn’t
trade
with
a
business
in
New
Jersey.
Would
any
American
put
up
with
that?
Why
should
Africans?

RC:
What
are
the
challenges
and
opportunities
you
face
in
achieving
this
for
Bitcoin
to
reach
its
full
potential
in
the
Global
South?

RY:
There
are
lots
of
challenges
facing
us,
but
the
biggest
one
is
dealing
with
the
political
pressure
from
the
West.
Anyone
who
goes
against
the
West
and
their
central
bankers
is
going
to
be
resisted.
The
governments
and
elites
who
run
the
global
financial
system
are
strong
because
they
have
a
series
of
sliders,
a
bunch
of
levers
they
can
push
and
pull
to
control
everything.

They
can
pull
one
way
and
say,
“Oh,
Nigeria,
you
haven’t
been
listening
to
us,
so
we’re
going
to
take
your
slider
all
the
way
down
to
zero.”
They
can
move
these
levers
at
any
time,
so
they
have
tremendous
power,
and
they
can
control
the
economies
of
the
world.
They
can
punish
or
reward
a
marketplace,
even
whole
economies,
and
we
need
to
offset
this.

Crypto
and
peer-to-peer
are
the
offsets,
and
that’s
why
the
West
has
such
a
problem
with
crypto.
It’s
why
they
put
people
who
don’t
follow
their
model
in
jail.

The
opportunities
in
the
Global
South
are
unlimited.
Africa
has
the
fastest-growing
population
of
any
continent.
It
has
1.5
billion
people,
and
the
next
25
years
will
add
almost
another
billion.
There
is
a
youth
unemployment
problem
right
now,
but
I
see
that
as
an
opportunity.
I’ve
met
so
many
young
Africans
who
are
savvy
and
dynamic
and
they
all
want
to
succeed.
I’ve
seen
many
of
them
use
our
marketplace
to
make
money,
to
start
businesses,
and
to
change
their
lives.

India
also
has
amazing
opportunities,
as
does
Latin
America.
There
are
so
many
opportunities
in
all
of
these
places
for
people
to
create
businesses
by
piggybacking
on
our
platform
–
that’s
one
of
the
greatest
successes
of
NoOnes,
I
think.
We
can’t
have
success
unless
we
help
others
have
success,
and
the
ethics
of
that
is
mostly
missing
in
the
corporate
world
today.

Which
companies
are
giving
back
50%
of
their
profits
to
the
people
who
use
their
products?
We
are
doing
that
at
NoOnes.
We
have
bonuses,
incentives,
and
a
Partner
Program
that
rewards
the
people
who
help
us
grow
because
we
want
people
to
help
us
spread
the
word
about
the
power
of
crypto
and
peer-to-peer.
We
need
the
Global
South
to
know
that
it
doesn’t
have
to
settle
for
a
Western
model
that
doesn’t
suit
its
needs.

If
we
add
up
all
of
those
things
–
dynamic,
savvy
young
people
who
are
hardworking
and
ready
to
grasp
opportunities,
a
universal
container
for
money
that
is
also
a
store
of
wealth,
and
the
NoOnes
marketplace
that
gives
the
Global
South
access
to
finance
and
free
trade
–
we
will
reach
the
full
potential
of
the
Global
South,
and
I
think
it
can
happen
quickly.
Most
people
in
the
West
will
be
astonished
by
it.

RC:
How
is
NoOnes
different
from
what
you
did
at
Paxful?

RY:
Paxful
had
a
major
disadvantage
–
it
was
based
in
the
US.
I’ve
already
talked
about
KYC
and
all
the
problems
we
encountered
trying
to
help
people
in
the
Global
South
as
a
US
company.
You
can’t
do
it
–
and
it’s
getting
worse.
Look
at
what
happened
to

Changpeng
“CZ”
Zhao,
[the
former
CEO
of
Binance].
He
went
to
jail.

Look
at
what
happened
to
Pavel
Durov,
the
Telegram
CEO
–

he
went
to
jail
the
minute
his
plane
landed
in
France.

I
had
the
same
vision
at

Paxful
that
I
have
now,
and
maybe
it
took
me
too
long
to
realize
that
I
couldn’t
achieve
my
mission
of
running
a
US
company.
But
now
the
shackles
are
off.
Nothing
is
holding
us
back
now
that
we
are
based
in
the
Global
South.

I
learned
years
ago
that
my
priority
has
to
be
to
serve
my
users,
my
customers.
They
can
fire
the
CEO.
I
learned
that
helping
my
parents
run
a
newsstand
on
Columbus
Circle
in
New
York
City
when
I
was
a
kid.

In
the
US,
the
first
priority
for
most
companies
is
to
serve
the
government,
then,
if
they’re
happy,
you
can
help
your
customers.
That’s
not
right.
And
I
won’t
do
that.
We
saw
what
happened
with
Binance.
They
gave
up
their
user
data
to
the
[Israeli
Defense
Forces]
IDF
and
hundreds
of
people
lost
millions
of
dollars
–
and
some
of
them
were
killed.
Compare
the
NoOnes
privacy
policy
to
the
Binance
privacy
policy.
We
won’t
give
up
our
user
data.
I
couldn’t
say
that
when
I
was
CEO
of
Paxful.

RC:
How
do
you
see
NoOnes
evolving
in
the
next
5-10
years?

RY:
NoOnes
is
going
to
get
bigger,
that’s
for
sure.
Sometimes
I
have
to
remind
myself
that
we
didn’t
exist
two
years
ago
because
we’ve
come
so
far
in
such
a
short
time,
but
this
is
only
the
start.
People
might
think
of
us
as
a
crypto
peer-to-peer
marketplace,
but
we
are
always
adding
new
products,
making
existing
ones
better,
and
we
listen
to
our
users
so
we
can
give
them
what
they
need.

I
talk
about
our
business
as
an
ecosystem
because
that’s
the
best
way
to
describe
how
we
are
evolving.
We
created
a
marketplace
for
crypto
and
gift
cards,
we
added
a
spot
exchange
and
other
products,
and
we
feed
profits
back
into
that
ecosystem.
People
are
building
their
businesses
on
top
of
our
platform.

Expats
working
overseas
send
money
home
and
realize
our
platform
is
a
better,
faster,
and
cheaper
way
of
doing
it
than
using
a
traditional
money
changer
–
so
they
start
doing
it
for
their
friends
and
create
a
side
hustle.
Someone
needs
to
make
a
payment
in
another
country,
but
they
don’t
have
a
bank
account,
so
they
use
our
platform
–
they
see
how
simple
it
is,
so
they
start
a
business
doing
the
same
for
other
people.
And
it
all
feeds
back
into
the
ecosystem.

Imagine
all
these
businesses
taking
the
place
of
the
traditional
banks
and
money
changers
–
the
wealth
stays
in
the
Global
South
instead
of
lining
the
pockets
of
all
the
executives
working
for
banks
and
financial
institutions
in
the
West.
That’s
part
of
the
reason
they
don’t
like
what
we
do.

Imagine
when
all
the
people
in
the
Global
South
realize
how
easy
it
is
to
make
these
changes.
How
easy
it
is
to
stop
the
drain
on
the
resources
of
the
Global
South
–
it’s
been
happening
for
centuries
and
it
has
to
stop,
and
it
will.
In
five
years,
maybe
less,
NoOnes
will
be
leading
that
drive
and
the
Global
South
will
be
on
the
way
to
becoming
a
superpower.

RC: How
do
you
see
the
relationship
between
crypto
and
the
wider
population
evolving?

RY:
That’s
a
great
question
because
it’s
the
front
line
in
the
battle
going
on
at
the
moment.
Before
I
understood
crypto
I
thought
it
was
just
“Internet
funny
money.”
Most
people
still
think
that
way
now
because
they
don’t
understand
it.
I’m
not
sure
governments
understand
it
that
well,
but
they
know
it’s
a
threat
to
the
status
quo.
That’s
why
they
tried
to
stop
it,
and
that’s
why
they
are
trying
to
control
it
now.

The
real
power
in
the
world
is
the
one
that
controls
the
money
system.
The
people
in
power
have
levers
they
use
to
keep
us
in
our
place,
and
the
manner
in
which
we
reverse
engineer
it
must
be
explained
very
clearly
and
logically
for
people
if
we
are
to
succeed
in
getting
them
to
help
us
fix
the
current
state
of
humanity.

In
simple
terms,
I’m
talking
about
a
currency
war,
and
when
I
say
currency
I
mean
anything
that
is
a
store
of
value
and
can
be
traded.
Eventually,
the
people
will
be
won
over
to
crypto
because
its
power
cannot
be
denied
–
even
governments
recognize
this
now.
Some
countries
banned
it,
then
they
realized
its
utility,
and
now
they’re
trying
to
regulate
it.
Crypto
isn’t
going
away.

The
real
question
is
whether
the
essence
of
it
gets
destroyed
in
the
process
of
being
accepted
by
the
wider
population.
Crypto
was
designed
to
be
trustless
and
permissionless
–
that
means
we
don’t
have
to
trust
some
government
or
corporation
to
have
faith
in
its
value.

RC:
What
is
NoOnes
focusing
on
at
the
moment?

RY:
Our
focus
is
on
our
three
core
values
–
everyone
eats,
bullish
education,
and
revolutionary
transparency.

I’ve
already
talked
about
giving
back
50%
of
our
profits
and
our
partner
program,
and
that’s
part
of
what
we
mean
by
“everyone
eats.”
I
don’t
want
to
get
rich
at
the
expense
of
the
people
who
use
our
products.
Some
people
laugh
at
me
when
I
say
I
am
on
a
mission,
but
I’ve
been
saying
it
for
more
than
a
decade
because
it’s
true.
We
won’t
be
happy
if
we
are
successful
and
others
around
us
are
not,
so
that’s
why
everyone
eats
is
important.

Another
principle
is
revolutionary
transparency.
Lots
of
businesses
talk
about
being
transparent,
but
most
of
them
don’t
follow
through.
This
is
why
we
get
problems
like
we
saw
with
FTX.
NoOnes
is
different.
Anyone
who
wants
to
see
the
business
data
I
see
about
NoOnes
can
see
it
by
looking
at
the
CEO
Dashboard
on
our
app.

Right
now,
our
biggest
focus
is
on
education.
I’ve
talked
about
the
opportunities
in
the
Global
South,
but
those
opportunities
won’t
mean
anything
if
people
don’t
know
about
them
and
become
educated
about
how
crypto
can
help
them
solve
problems.
We
created
the
NoOnes
Academy
so
people
can
learn
not
only
how
to
trade
profitably,
but
also
how
they
can
do
it
safely.

Some
people
might
want
to
make
a
payment
or
send
money
home,
but
they
are
scared
of
crypto
because
they’ve
heard
nasty
stories
in
the
media.
We
want
to
educate
them
so
they
understand
how
easy
it
works
and
how
much
utility
it
has.
Some
people
might
just
use
it
in
a
small
way
–
helping
them
pay
for
something
because
they
don’t
have
a
VISA
card
or
a
bank
account.
Others
might
be
skilled
and
savvy,
but
they’re
unemployed
and
they’re
looking
to
earn
money
to
pay
the
bills
or
to
start
a
business
–
they
might
learn
how
to
trade
gift
cards
or
crypto
through
the
NoOnes
Academy.

If
enough
people
become
educated
about
how
our
super
app
works,
the
Global
South
will
change
dramatically.

RC:
What
are
your
plans
for
NoOnes
in
terms
of
growth
and
development?

RY:
I’ve
already
talked
about
Dubai,
but
it’s
a
great
example
of
the
future
of
the
Global
South.
A
lot
of
people
think
Dubai
has
had
massive
growth
because
of
oil,
but
that’s
just
not
true.
Sheikh
Mohammed
made
trade
easy
and
the
environment
business-friendly,
and
pretty
soon
the
money
flowed
into
Dubai
like
a
river.
The
money
that
came
in
was
then
fed
back
into
development
and
we
can
see
the
result
today.

My
vision
is
to
see
cities
like
Dubai
across
the
Global
South,
with
NoOnes
leading
the
way.
We
will
provide
the
infrastructure,
the
education
and
the
opportunities,
and
that
means
being
on
the
ground,
listening
to
people
so
we
can
give
them
what
they
need
to
help
them
grow.
We’ve
done
it
with
our
peer-to-peer
marketplace,
our
spot
exchange,
a
virtual
VISA
card,
and
gift
cards
–
and
new
products
are
coming.

We’re
looking
at
a
peer-review
credit
score
so
users
will
get
a
rating
that
can
be
used
to
provide
financing
for
start-ups
and
business
owners.
We
want
to
fine-tune
our
messaging
function
because
that’s
a
great
way
to
attract
people
we
can
educate
on
the
benefits
of
crypto.

We
need
more
people
to
help
us
grow,
so
we’ll
be
hiring
people
on
the
ground
wherever
we
do
business.
Already
our
users
are
helping
us
by
making
content
to
help
educate
their
fellow
citizens.
Our
growth
and
development
always
revolve
around
work.
Free
trade
allows
the
money
to
flow
and
that
puts
people
to
work
so
they
can
create
their
wealth.
I
truly
believe
in
universal
wealth,
but
that
only
happens
when
the
roadblocks
to
growth
are
removed.
To
do
that
we
must
have
the
people
behind
us,
and
that’s
why
education
is
so
important.

Our
goal
was
for
NoOnes
to
have
a
billion
users
within
seven
years,
and
if
we
do
that
we
will
bring
the
Global
South
closer
to
the
wealth
it’s
been
denied
for
so
long.