đź“– Unfamiliar terms? See the glossary for definitions.
Role: BCH Buyer (Passive) + Product Seller — the star of Asgaya
Example: Carlos in Caracas (Venezuela) running a grocery store
Honest note — the roles are interchangeable. A merchant, a trader, and a passive seller are the same liquidity provider seen from different seats, and the app unifies them. A merchant who takes BCH can also sell it (fund a covenant) and replenish it on the board. We keep this as a dedicated merchant journey because the merchant is the point of the whole thing — but read the Trader Journey for the other seats.
The merchant’s edge. A merchant is a physical establishment anyone can walk into. Part of reputation comes from that: a merchant with a bad reputation has more to lose — customers, the shop, the badge. That makes a merchant’s reliability a stronger anchor than an anonymous online counterparty, and it is why Asgaya funnels customers and fees toward merchants.
Carlos is not just a BCH buyer — he’s a triple-dip profit machine:
Mode: Passive — posts a listing once, the app handles the rest.
Economic insight: recipients need cash, Carlos needs BCH. Perfect match.
| Revenue Source | Amount | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Spread | €0.50 (0.5%) | Carlos buys €100 of BCH for €99.50 |
| 2. Product margin | €15-42 (15-30%) | Elena spends cash on groceries — the reason she came |
| 3. Stable value | Variable | Carlos keeps the BCH, or stabilises as H€/HAu (vs ±40%/mo VES inflation) |
Illustrative total on a €100 transaction: €15.50 - €42.50 — while running his normal business. Even 1-2 transactions a day is meaningful in a high-inflation economy.
Carlos#487 — the payment reference).Setup complete. Now Carlos waits.
Payment-first is minimal capital deployment. Because fiat moves before BCH does, your operational wallet only needs enough BCH for one or two concurrent transactions — then you replenish. That isn’t a constraint; it’s a security feature:
Keep the float, keep your reputation. Because a merchant’s reputation is anchored to the establishment, the safe behaviour (small float, honest declines) also protects the thing you can’t replace — the shop’s name.
Morning. Elena receives a remittance, queries the board, finds Carlos (nearby, cash in person, tracked reputation), and heads to the shop. She can coordinate over Nostr first, or just walk in and quote face-to-face via QR.
At the store. Elena shops first, cashes out at checkout.
The transaction (merchant-first):
Before Asgaya: Elena picks up cash at Western Union (€5 fee, a trip), then travels to a store — and the merchant never sees the remittance.
With Asgaya: Elena goes straight to Carlos’s store, shops, and cashes out at checkout. Carlos captures both the remittance liquidity and the retail sale. Remittance recipients are grocery customers; one location serves both needs.
| Scenario | Transactions/day | Spread (0.5%) | Grocery margin | Total/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 5 × €100 | €2.50 | ~€105 (15%, half shop) | ~€107 |
| Optimistic | 10 × €100 | €5 | ~€375 (25%, most shop) | ~€380 |
Reality check: the value is purchasing power preserved — even one or two cash-outs a day is attractive where the local currency loses value fast. (Held value is stabilised in H€/HAu when available; see below — the point is not to amass BCH in the hot wallet.)
Carlos’s concern: “I receive BCH today; rent is due in two weeks. What if BCH drops 20%?”
Solution (Phase 0+): the stability layer. When Carlos takes BCH, his wallet offers:
Phase 0 launches BCH-only; stability tokens are added when merchants demonstrate the need. Without a stabiliser, one bad drop makes merchants quit — that’s the retention risk the layer solves.
After funding a covenant you need more BCH. Buy it on the board if it’s easier or cheaper than a CEX — and that purchase is itself a trade:
The board serves two demands: remittance senders and sellers replenishing. A newcomer can build reputation as a reliable buyer too — not only as a seller. (See the board workspace on the capacity signal and replenishment.)
Why passive matters: setup once (listing + float); then accept/reject each cash-out in ~30 seconds. Time invested after setup: minutes a day.
Why merchants stay: the first BCH drop scares an unstabilised merchant into quitting; with stability (H€/HAu) and modest, safe floats, they turn from transient participants into long-term merchants — and the network effect compounds: recipients become customers, customers start paying in BCH, and the merchant becomes a true BCH merchant.
The endgame: merchant adoption → direct BCH payments → Asgaya becomes unnecessary. That is success.
For implementation: Wallet · Bulletin Board · Nostr · Notification Bot · Stability Layer
For rationale: Inefficient by Design · Value-Guaranteed Delivery · Derived Reputation
Status: Phase 0 (Pre-Launch) — Spain → Venezuela corridor
Updated: 2026-10-04
Key insight: Merchants are the retention layer — and the goal. Triple-dip + stability + small, safe floats = merchant evangelism.
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