The thread that connects money, chat, and credit. A P2P network that absorbs each country's domestic rails and stitches them cross-border. Starts in Panama ↔ El Salvador. Continues across LATAM.
WeChat proved money flows through social channels. Cash App, Pix, Yappy, Yape and Plin proved it in their markets. Sardex proved credit can be mutual, not bank-issued. Strike and Bitso proved stablecoins work as a cross-border rail. HILO doesn't invent any of that — it stitches them together.
protocolo que crece por nodos." data-en-html="Starts in the most natural corridor — Panama ↔ El Salvador. Two dollarized countries. Cross-diaspora of ~300K. ~$1.2B/yr in remittances charging 4-7% commission today. HILO charges ~0.3% and settles in seconds. The roadmap isn't 'one country then another' — it's a protocol that grows by nodes.">Starts in the most natural corridor — Panama ↔ El Salvador. Two dollarized countries. Cross-diaspora of ~300K. ~$1.2B/yr in remittances charging 4-7% commission today. HILO charges ~0.3% and settles in seconds. The roadmap isn't 'one country then another' — it's a protocol that grows by nodes.
The v0.1 app exists. Strategy, cold-start playbook and architecture are documented.
We're not planning to build. We're iterating. The v0.1 app makes USDC transfers on Solana, supports chat-messages embedded in each transaction, and has the first version of the trust graph implemented.
Each pillar solves something distinct that no LATAM competitor has all of.
Every transaction creates a chat thread. Every chat can hold money. WeChat proved this with 1.3B users. Yappy copied it but only inside Panama. HILO does it cross-border.
You can't create a HILO account alone. You only enter invited by someone already in. Your inviter cryptographically signs. That builds a trust graph from day one — HILO's most valuable asset.
We don't try to replace Yappy or Pix or Yape. We absorb them. HILO knows Yappy. HILO knows Pix. You send from HILO in Panama to your cousin in Brazil — it arrives as Pix. Hidden magic.
50%+ of LATAM adults are outside bank credit. HILO reinvents the category: your trust graph IS your credit. Sardex proved it in Italy (~$50M/yr in circulation). HILO digitizes it for 600M people.
One architectural decision beats any growth campaign.
The hardest question for a P2P network is: how does it grow without burning millions on ads? Yappy solved it with Panama's biggest bank's distribution. Venmo solved it with US college network-effect. HILO solves it with one protocol-level rule: you can't create an account alone. You can only be invited. Your inviter cryptographically signs and becomes your initial 'vouch'. Your first payment, your first loan, your first credit — all pass through that vouch.
One person invites 5. Those 5 each invite 3-7. In 90 days, a well-seeded core in Boquete + David grows to 3,000-5,000 nodes with zero marketing spend.
Vouches aren't decorative. They carry real economic weight: if someone I invited defaults on credit, part of the loss falls on my credit limit. That means each user only invites people they actually trust. Spam and fraud collapse because they'd cost the spammer money.
A Salvadoran in Panama invites his mom in San Miguel. The vouch crosses the border carrying weight. Mom enters HILO with a first-credit already pre-approved by the graph. That's the brutal advantage over Yappy (zero reach outside PA) and Wise (zero social context).
We don't fight domestic rails. We speak them. The receiver gets it on what they already use.
The biggest mistake cross-border apps make is assuming the receiver will install the app. They won't. Their cousin in Brazil already uses Pix. Their dad in Peru already uses Yape. Pretending they'll migrate is losing. HILO works the other way: you send from HILO in Panama → the network auto-routes to the receiver's domestic rail → it arrives as native Pix. The receiver doesn't know HILO touched it.
Launched by Banco Central do Brasil in 2020. ~150M users. 24/7 instant transfers via CPF/email/phone/QR. HILO integrates as a participant.
Yape (BCP) has ~14M users. Plin (Interbank+BBVA+ScotiaBank) has ~9M. HILO connects via both bank consortia APIs.
Banco General. ~2.5M active users. Domestic only. HILO integrates via Banco General API — Yappy is the default PA-side rail.
Chivo is the state wallet with ~4M users. Strike runs Bitcoin Lightning with strong presence. HILO integrates with both as recipients.
SPEI (Banxico) settles seconds for large amounts. CoDi is the native QR-pay. Mercado Pago + Bitso dominate retail. HILO routes CLABE as destination.
Nequi (Bancolombia) has ~18M users. Daviplata (Davivienda) ~13M. Movii is the third player. HILO integrates all three as send-to-phone-number.
Without friendly banks and a cambista network, HILO doesn't touch cash. Without cash, it never reaches the mass market.
The most underrated piece of any LATAM payment network isn't the tech — it's who banks the protocol. HILO needs two things in each country: (1) a primary bank that custodies the USD backing the local stablecoin, and (2) a physical cambista network that converts cash ↔ HILO balance. Without both, users can send but can't cash out.
Cobre Panamá already has the banking rail. Yappy already has 2.5M users. What's missing is physical cash-in/out: the corner store where you convert cash to balance. HILO signs with bodegas, pharmacies, hardware stores and minimarkets. Each becomes an agent. They charge a small fee per cash transaction. The app pays them weekly. The cambista always exists; HILO just formalizes it.
Target in PA: 500 agents in 6 months. Boquete + David + PA City. Each agent handles ~50 tx/week of $20-200. Extra income for the owner: $200-400/mo. Costs the user zero.
Target in SV: 1,200 agents (bigger market, higher cash need). Same model. Sora already has Boquete + David relationships — starts there.
Some competitors have 2-3 of these. None has all 11.
Every payment is a persistent chat thread. Notes, photos, receipts, context — all live with the transaction. WeChat-style applied to LATAM.
No open sign-up. You only enter by invitation. Kills spam, builds the graph, and makes every user a real credit node.
Your credit limit is a function of your vouch graph × history × tanda participation. 50%+ of LATAM adults outside traditional bureaus get access.
Tandas (rotating savings groups) exist in every LATAM country under different names — cundinas in MX, juntas in CO, susus in Africa. HILO codes them as an app object: organizer, members, contribution, payout order, all automated.
Pix, Yape, Plin, Yappy, Nequi, Daviplata, CoDi, CLABE. HILO speaks them all. The receiver doesn't need to install anything.
Interfaz tipo neobank, infraestructura cripto." data-en-html="USDC and USDT run underneath. The user never sees 'wallet address', 'gas', or 'seed phrase'. Neobank-style interface, crypto infrastructure.">USDC and USDT run underneath. The user never sees 'wallet address', 'gas', or 'seed phrase'. Neobank-style interface, crypto infrastructure.
Transactions batch up. End of day, only the net between nodes settles. On-chain cost per user: ~$0.001. User never pays gas.
Network of bodegas, pharmacies and minimarkets as cash-in/out agents. Target: 500 PA · 1,200 SV. The cambista always exists — HILO just formalizes.
FIDO2 passkey. <$100: face/fingerprint. $100-1000: + voice phrase. >$1000: + second factor on separate device. Friction scales with amount.
No public feed (Venmo has one). Compliance opt-in when off-ramping to fiat. Amount and counterparty are visible only to you and the recipient.
Pay your Sora reservation with HILO. Pay your Rapitido dinner with HILO. Veta settles streaming via HILO. Every other La Compañía brand is a real use case from day one.
Each wins in one dimension. None has the full stack.
Not '2 years from now we'll do this'. Just: what's done, what's running, what's next.