Hey guys! Nice to meet you if we haven't met yet and you're reading this.
I'm Jan, the creator of HiveDebit (or Beepay), and I know you probably have a lot of questions about how it works and why you should use or talk about it. I also know that sometimes you don’t want to read the full story of a project, so I’ll structure this post like a book.
HiveDebit Story
I met @starkerz a long time ago in Colombia at Blockchain Summit LATAM. I interviewed him, and he told me about @v4vapp. A few months before that, @ecoinstant had introduced me to v4v, but it was really interesting to get more details directly from @starkerz and meet the guy behind 3SpeakTV.
After that, we didn’t stay in contact much—just a few chats, but nothing too significant.
In October, I raised funds to attend LaBitconf in Argentina. I made it there, but my Airbnb was terrible—it was supposed to be a private room with towels, a kitchen, and basic necessities, but it turned out to be a place where Chinese immigrants lived while running businesses in Argentina.
On the first day of the conference, I went there without taking a shower and feeling a bit anxious about my first solo international trip (I'm 17). I had always wanted to visit Argentina, explore its culture, and understand things like the country's obsession with Pro Evolution Soccer 06 and Counter-Strike. But it was tough to enjoy the trip without basic necessities like towels or a decent place to stay.
As I was walking around the event, I suddenly saw a familiar face—it was @starkerz. I explained my situation to him, and he offered me a place to stay at his Airbnb. Of course, I accepted, took a much-needed shower, and we started talking about development.
That day, I received a Bitcoin Lightning NFC card, and I was amazed by it—you just tap and pay. Sometimes it doesn’t work due to liquidity issues in the Lightning Network, but at least the technology exists.
So I asked @starkerz, "What if Hive had this technology?" This could solve major issues with crypto adoption and payments. The biggest challenge for people unfamiliar with crypto is that they don’t want to spend 30 minutes learning about security and economics just to use it. But what if you gave them an NFC card preloaded with information about Hive? They could discover it step by step, in a way that feels natural.
I pitched the idea to him, and he was really interested. We tried to buy an NFC card in Buenos Aires, but it was almost impossible to find one. Still, the idea was born. When I returned to Colombia, I started brainstorming the best way to bring it to life.
I created a roadmap and began developing, though at a slow pace, since I wanted to test different approaches.
The first version of this project was called Beepay, designed as a mobile app. The goal was to build a complete solution, but developing in Kotlin turned out to be much harder than expected. After five failed attempts, I decided to pause the project in November.
After taking a short vacation, I came back home and started thinking:
"What is the easiest and most effective way to do this?"
And then it hit me: Why not make it a dApp or a WebApp?
Beepay.com
Once I started working on this, I got some NFC cards and my phone to begin local development. I was working on this for 9-12 hours a day, either during the day or at night. After a lot of effort, I finally made it.
But why is it not called Beepay?
Basically, I tried to get the beepay.com domain, but someone else already owned it. So, I started brainstorming and asked @starkerz about it. That's when we came up with Hive Debit—because, just like a debit card, you can only spend the funds you actually have.
How Does It Work?
I built a WebApp that allows you to receive Hive/HBD payments in seconds.
Let's say you run a coffee shop and I buy a coffee for $1 USD. You simply go to HiveDebit.com, generate an invoice in 5 seconds, and ask me to tap my NFC card. As soon as I tap, you receive the payment without fees or delays.
This solves several problems. The most important one for me is that you don’t need to use your phone.
I’m from Colombia, and it’s not always safe to pull out your phone on the street just to make a payment. But if I can use my HBD/Hive by simply tapping an NFC card, there’s no risk involved.
This also boosts adoption—if someone doesn’t know anything about crypto, and I give them an NFC card, they’ll naturally want to learn about it. It introduces people to crypto in a way that feels intuitive.
Another key improvement is how businesses receive payments.
If the store owner is unavailable or forgets their Hive Keychain credentials, they wouldn’t be able to receive payments.
If an employee has an Android phone with NFC, they can process HiveDebit payments for the business and get proof of the transaction.
I'm also working on a tipping feature. If you overpay an invoice, for example, if your total is $20 USD and you want to leave a tip, you just choose a percentage, and the system automatically calculates and adds it to the total. You tap once, and both the business and the employee get paid.
Another use case: Payroll payments in Hive/HBD.
If a company pays employees $1,000 USD, they could give them $900 USD in cash or via bank transfer and $100 USD on an NFC card.
Employees could then spend that $100 USD in a Hive-based circular economy, even if they have zero knowledge of crypto.
There are countless real-world applications for this technology.
Is It Safe? Is It Free?
Security comes first, so yes, it’s a safe system.
Is it free? I still need to figure that out. Designing and manufacturing NFC cards isn’t free, and writing data onto them takes time. We’re going to offer some for free, but we’ll also explore ways to make it as affordable as possible.
Why Did I Create This?
I’m a developer, but I won’t say I’m the best in the world. I started programming in C++ at 15, and I’ve always wanted to build an interesting project like this.
This is the future of Hive payments, and the funny thing is that I’m supposed to be a Bitcoin Maximalist.
If you ask me which crypto I prefer, I’ll tell you that crypto is trash, and the only real one is Bitcoin.
But there are two exceptions that I respect: Monero and Hive.
If you’re a Bitcoiner, you believe in freedom, which means people should choose whatever they want.
I still believe Bitcoin is the global currency of the future, but that’s going to take time. Meanwhile, Hive has great potential as a stablecoin system.
HBD is backed, decentralized, and has zero fees—it’s perfect. The main reason I built this project is to prove that some crypto projects actually provide real value—and Hive is one of them.
NFC Technology
Maybe you know something about NFC. If you want a simple example, just take a look inside your wallet and grab your debit or credit card—that card has NFC technology.
Inside the card, there is important data that enables payments. We’re using the same technology as debit cards, allowing you to store information and make HBD/Hive payments with it.
The most important thing we discovered with @starkerz is that after releasing HiveDebit, you’ll have NFC in your Hive Wallet.
NFC: No Fucking Coins
Because you’re gonna spend all of them.
When Will It Be Released?
I don’t know exactly, but it won’t take long.
I want to make sure this technology is stable and accessible to everyone before launching.
Also, something I forgot to mention (and I’m too lazy to edit the post 😆):
You can also make Lightning payments by tapping with the NFC card.
I still need to figure out how to integrate cool features like this, but I feel like HiveDebit is a solid project, and a lot of people will use it.
Let me know your ideas and suggestions—but remember, I CAN'T ADD FIAT PAYMENTS, because Hive is not a company.
Thanks for reading! This is just a basic explanation since a lot of people have been asking about it.
If you want to feature me in your podcast, article, or just chat about it, feel free to reach out in the comments! 🚀