What’s new with HandCash? Rafa Jimenez bares it all

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HandCash co-founder and CTO Rafa Jiménez joined the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream this week to give an overview of what’s happening inside one of BSV blockchain’s most exciting companies. He also had a special announcement to make about a new game on BSV.

Rafa Jiménez Bitcoin story

Wuckert kicks things off by asking what he always asks guests: what’s your Bitcoin story?

Jiménez worked with co-founder Alex Agut on various projects, so it’s no surprise that he discovered Bitcoin while looking for a payment solution capable of small, casual payments. At the time, credit cards and other payment solutions weren’t suitable for what he wanted, but Bitcoin was too complicated to integrate, so they didn’t proceed. Later, around the time of the BCH fork, they returned to Bitcoin and began to build HandCash.

Wuckert remembers the BCH version of HandCash and has always admired the company’s commitment to making Bitcoin as simple as possible for users. Technical guys in BTC Core and other projects tend to make things suitable for their type of people, but HandCash has always made it easy enough for non-techies to use.

HandCash focuses on gaming

These days, HandCash has been strongly focused on gaming. Wuckert asks how that’s working out and what the plans are.

Jiménez says it fits well with what they are trying to do and that gamers understand and like it. They’ve found a good combination of money and in-game items as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), although they don’t call them that. He says that blockchain solves many problems related to trust in gaming, and putting all of these together— blockchain, money and tokens—unlocks many possibilities.

Now that Jiménez has stepped into the top leadership role at HandCash, what does he want to focus on going forward and be remembered for? Exploring new use cases for the tech is one, but focusing on the developer experience is another. They will offer ‘Wallet-as-a-Service’ so others can use HandCash infrastructure while branding the wallet as they wish.

Wuckert likes this idea, noting that the BSV ecosystem’s developer kit and onboarding are relative weaknesses. BSVers have spent too much time debating token protocols and other such issues, and it’s time to focus on making things easier for developers.

Token protocols and a new game announcement

Speaking of token protocols, which does Jiménez prefer, and what does he think of 1Sat Ordinals? He says they all have strengths, weaknesses and tradeoffs, but 1Sat Ordinals are excellent for simple tokens like in-game items. He also likes Tokenized for fungible tokens with specialized requirements, such as real-world assets that must comply with regulations.

Jiménez also has an announcement: HandCash is partnering with a new game called Dark Country. It’s a Trading Card Game like Champions TCG, and users can play now with weekly tournaments and rewards. This game has been around since 2021, launched on several other blockchains, and decided to try BSV.

To learn more about HandCash integration with merchants, SPV compatibility, lessons from other successful wallets, and the importance of stablecoins and tokens on BSV, watch the live stream here.

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