While most crypto businesses go on out of Cuba due to regulatory uncertainties and hefty American sanctions, Italian-Cuban entrepreneur Mario Mazzola developed and deployed Cuba'southward starting time peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) exchange.

Blockchain and cryptocurrency news outlet Decrypt reported on April 23 that Mazzola launched the "ultra-lightweight" Bitcoin commutation earlier this month.

Taking the atomic number 82

A Reuters report published in September 2022 quoted a 35-year-old Cuban mobile store possessor, Jason Sanchez, maxim that virtual currencies were "opening new doors" for ordinary citizens.

While there is interest in using virtual currencies and an opportunity to circumvent U.Southward. sanctions, Cubans face difficulty using cryptos equally near exchanges have geo-blocked them from accessing their services.

Mazzola defines Bitcoin as a necessity for Cubans, simply with most services blocking users, they fail to reap the benefits. In such a state of affairs, he adds, Qbita will serve equally their tool to buy, sell, use and store Bitcoins hands and safely.

Before launching the Qbita exchange this month, he had already launched the Qbita Bitcoin wallet in November 2022. The wallet is specifically designed keeping in heed the tiresome cyberspace services in Cuba, which is why it is just 1MB in size and can part with a basic internet connectedness.

Other crypto exchanges in Cuba don't help much

There are other cryptocurrency exchange and wallet services in Cuba like Paxful and LocalBitcoins but Mazzola said that each of them has "a lilliputian problem."

"Paxful is actively blocking Republic of cuba, LocalBitcoins is asking you lot for KYC, and because of the embargo, this legal requirement is non helping the people of the island, so information technology is non available in our country."

Since the launch of the Qbita exchange, the number of registered downloads have shot to 1,100 from 850, marking a 30% increase in merely a week.

While the numbers aren't huge, Mazzola is optimistic that Cubans would soon see the potential of Bitcoin in national and international transactions.

"Nosotros're going to encounter more people using Bitcoin for its true purpose: the liberty to move money and to have total control of your funds."