Founders: Will Reeves & Matt Luongo
Date founded: The most recent version of the company is: 2019.
The location of the headquarters: The Remote
The amount of Bitcoin held in Treasury “Stacking since the founding of Fold”
The number of employees: 22
Website: https://foldapp.com/
Public or private? You can also contact us by email.
Will Reeves is looking to make Fold your Bitcoin bank.
Reeves is the co-founder and chief executive officer of FoldA more pragmatic approach is taken by an app, which allows Bitcoin lovers to receive bitcoins for their everyday purchases and convert DCA to bitcoin.
He is convinced that Fold, the app he has created to help Bitcoin connect to both the traditional world of banking and the world of Bitcoin L2s will become the most popular Bitcoin application.
“You can think of us creating the bridge to Bitcoin for those that are used to banking with traditional banks,” Reeves tells Bitcoin Magazine.
“We’re going to make the case why you should ditch your old bank and come to Fold, because we’re going to privilege and respect your bitcoin and unlock features that just don’t exist anywhere else,” He added.
“We also see a place on Fold for Lightning to facilitate faster and cheaper payments for our users who are using bitcoin as peer-to-peer cash. We also think that there’s a place for Liquid Fold. There’s [a place for] The roll-ups are a great way to get your day started. BitVM, Ark, [too.]”
Before you start thinking that maybe this sounds too good to be true — that it’s impossible for one app to do all of this — it’s important to keep in mind that Reeves and his team have spent the last decade paying attention to what Bitcoin users want and need most and recalibrating Fold’s mission accordingly.
Fold’s phases
Fold, founded in 2014 as an online platform to help users exchange unwanted gift certificates for bitcoin. Soon after the launch, Fold enabled its users to buy gift cards using bitcoin. Fold’s customers were then able to purchase everyday items at places like Starbucks, or certain supermarkets.
Reeves’ and Matt Luongo’s co-founders flipped the script during the company’s second phase and allowed users to pay with fiat and receive bitcoins in return.
“We evolved because we saw the larger problem was that not enough people had bitcoin and there weren’t enough good ways to get it,” Reeves explains. “That’s why we focused heavily on rewards — to give everyone a way to passively earn bitcoin without a lot of the risk, without needing much education.”
Reeves is confident that Fold users will be ready to include Bitcoin in their daily financial life more generally with this latest version of Fold.
“We’re hoping to bring Bitcoin to the center of people’s lives,” He said. “The product has grown, and it’s not just about earning bitcoin rewards, but using bitcoin as your savings, regularly buying it and spending it.”
Fold App: A bitcoin app for everyone
Fold is a bitcoin only company. The platform also supports US Dollars, but some Fold users consider this just another currency. “altcoin,” joked Reeves.)
Reeves appears to enjoy the challenge of finding the right balance to meet the needs of both Bitcoiners with a lot of experience who want to get the best out of their Bitcoins and newcomers to Bitcoin.
“One thing I’ve tried to do is bring the best possible people to create a product that is both intimately familiar with the needs of Bitcoiners, while at the same time making the features that we produce usable for people who are maybe just using Bitcoin for the first time,” Reeves, said
“We have a litmus test whenever we release things: The features need to be infinitely valuable to your local Bitcoin maximalist on Twitter and also good for that person to recommend to their mom, sister, brother or friend,” He added.
Reeves made a comparison between Fold and Duolingo which caters to different language levels.
“Duolingo is both an app that is able to accommodate expert level language speakers looking to go to the next level as well as people who are looking for their first couple of vocabulary words in another language,” Reeves explains. “That is something our design team has heavily leaned into.”
Wen Fold International
Fold currently only offers services to US residents. When I asked on X who they would like me interviewing Reeves, I got a few responses. “Wen International?” responses. (The “h” The following are some examples of how to use “When” The word “Bitcoin” is deliberately left out for people who don’t know the slang.
Reeves revealed that Fold will be launching new products in the international market, but they may not carry the Fold name.
“We have currently built the infrastructure for Fold to expand into the likes of Canada and the UK, and we are going to lead with our rewards product first,” Reeves explains.
“When you start to think of other countries and their unique dynamics, sometimes Fold doesn’t have that expertise in that local market. So, we have built a platform that allows others to leverage our entire infrastructure,” “He added.”
“So, you want to build a Bitcoin bank? You want to build custody, trading, attached to a bank account with a debit card and all of that? You can leverage that technology to launch something internationally. That is going to allow us to expand much faster with experts in the local area.”
Reeves shared that this is how Fold’s intellectual property is currently at work in El Salvador — Bitcoin country — where the company has officesThe value of Fold’s intellectual property is discussed before providing further insight.
Fold’s IP
Fold has an impressive tech stack because it was one of the first Bitcoin startups to develop. Reeves stated that the same is true not only for Fold, but many Bitcoin startups.
“We’re so early in this that essentially every Bitcoin startup that’s out there is building an immense amount of IP that doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Reeves, shared
Fold’s creations are unique.
“Nobody has built what Fold has where you can have a Bitcoin wallet speaking to an FDIC-insured bank account that is attached to Visa that can flip back into bitcoin,” He explained.
Fold believes as more institutions join the Bitcoin space they will leverage his work to create Bitcoin-specific products and features.
“A lot of the value that Bitcoin companies are building now may look like consumer products today, but are actually full infrastructure plays that will be powering and underpinning products from the big logos when they want to jump into Bitcoin,” Reeves, said
“We all, as Bitcoin founders, look under the hood of what we’ve done and see, ‘Hey, this is going to be immensely valuable to a lot of people and a lot of partners,'” He added.
Foldables: The Future of Foldables
Fold’s app will be updated with new features soon. Reeves said that, while I am unable to reveal the exact features (you will soon hear more about it), I do know what Fold hopes to motivate you to accomplish.
“Ditch your bank that keeps shutting down your payments to buy Bitcoin. Ditch your bank that is blocking you from loans because you work at a Bitcoin company.”
“There’s no reason why Bitcoiners should be using fiat banks that cancel their bitcoin buys saying they’re risky payments,” Reeves was added.
“Fold is creating a home that privileges people that hold bitcoin. This doesn’t really exist today.”
And beyond giving Bitcoin enthusiasts a better traditional banking experience and a great place to stack sats, Fold will is also looking to the future — to Bitcoin L2s like Lightning, Liquid and beyond.
“The vision really comes together when we say, ‘Hey, there’s no door that you cannot use your Bitcoin through. There’s no rail on which you cannot use it,'” Reeves explains. “Fold needs to deliver on ‘I hold bitcoin and I can seamlessly send value across traditional fiat rails. I can send value across Lightning. I can send value across Liquid and all expansive other definitions of other Bitcoin layers that can give new value to Bitcoiners.'”
Fold is available for download here.
“This article is not financial advice.”
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
