I like to eat. By that I mean I like to make money. I’ve had my fair share of hunger pangs and two-minute noodles because I couldn’t afford anything else. It’s not fun, but it’s the reality for many people in the Global South. It’s a reality that NoOnes aims to change.
I want to make a lot of money and I’m not ashamed to say that. Being really rich would be great, but it wouldn’t feel right if everyone around me was poor. It wouldn’t even feel right if they were moderately successful. The only way it would feel right is if everyone around me was rich too. That’s why one of our values at Nobody’s is “everybody eats,” and it’s so important that I made it part of our business model.
There is hunger at NoOnes, but it’s a hunger to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure everyone eats. It started with our promise to give back 50% of the company’s profits. You can’t take that promise to the bank – who trusts them? – but you can look at my track record and ask yourself, am I serious about it?
Ever since I dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s of the financial system and realized how it oppresses people who have no power, especially those in the Global South, I’ve made it my mission to help create a new system. There have been many obstacles in my path, but I’m confident that we can create a new financial ecosystem, and that’s why I get up every morning. I make a choice, and I’m lucky to be able to make it because I have a skill that allows me to get the job done.
My vision of a global South where everyone eats would have already become a reality if we had not been held back by the disastrous policies of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after decolonization. I say decolonization, but the truth is that military regimes have only been replaced by economic ones. Now we have the tools we need to go ahead and defeat that system to give us something better.
At NoOnes we already do a lot of things, such as our Partner Program and cashback to reward the customers who help us grow. For example, our users are our biggest ambassadors, so we give them jobs to help with our educational programs online and on the ground. All of these initiatives are part of our “everyone eats” mantra, but there’s so much more to come.
Everyone Eats is about much more than giving back financially. The vision we’re working toward is really a new financial architecture, an ecosystem where everything revolves around incentivizing people to work. We’re already doing that by creating jobs – having our citizens generate content to get people into crypto, like showing others how to make money, creating educational videos on how to buy or trade Bitcoin, or talking to groups in person and online. The best part is that it’s organic and circular, a constant loop that keeps feeding the system.
Crypto users across Africa are learning how to use what we’ve built and building layers on top of it. They’re hacking it in ways we never imagined and putting what they’ve learned back into the ecosystem by teaching others. That way, everyone gets a seat at the table and a plate in front of them with some food on it.
We want everyone to grow, so our goal is to scale this ecosystem, to make it a truly people-driven, trustless, fully transparent tool that will transform the Global South into a powerhouse. This “everyone eats” philosophy turns the entire Western business model on its head. Instead of locking down the potential of millions in the Global South, our model is designed to be generative, to build – and it works.
Years ago, when I first started talking to potential users in Africa about Bitcoin online, I tried to get a lot of people on board by giving away BTC because I knew my investment would be returned to me. I went further when I saw the Built with Bitcoin Foundation and built 13 schools in the Global South to help educate locals. We were on the ground showing people how a peer-to-peer marketplace using Bitcoin as a universal container for money could not only lift them up, but transform the lives of future generations.
“Everybody eats” means we all have food, a great place to live and work, but it also means we have free time and we’re going to show the world that this model works. As a P2P platform, we need to make a profit because we can’t advocate for a just society without resources. However, it’s absolutely essential that we don’t obsess about profit, except to the extent that we can feed it back into the ecosystem to generate more growth.
We want everyday people to understand that they have so many opportunities to grow, despite the obstacles in front of them, a lack of education, resources, or the “right” nationality. I was just a nerd from an immigrant family who failed many times until I learned how to succeed. Now I try to give my brothers and sisters in the Global South a shortcut to prosperity. If that means giving away 50% of our income to make sure everyone has something to eat, then I will. We need profit, but we are people-driven, and that is what makes NoOnes so special. The task now is to spread the word.
This is a guest post by Ray Youssef. The opinions expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.