This release is also published to the Blink blog at blink.sv.
21 October 2024 – Galoy Inc. and entrepreneur Lukas Duczko have successfully completed a transaction to position Blink for its next phase of development.
I am excited for the next chapter of Blink. It’s in the hands of experienced and principled bitcoiners. Between the addition of Lukas, the new board and the existing team, the wallet is well positioned to continue driving bitcoin adoption from the bottom up - Nicolas Burtey, CEO of Galoy
Lukas joins Blink as CEO and Executive Chairman. He is the founder of Scrive.com, a Scandinavian e-signing B2B SaaS company, which was sold in 2020 for $65 million.
Additionally joining Blink’s Board of Directors are Mike Peterson (Founder of Bitcoin Beach), Gerson Martinez (Chief Strategy Officer of Volcano Energy), Moritz Wietersheim (Founder of Specter Wallet), Kgothatso Ngako (Founder of Machankura), Jeremy Showalter (Chief Business Officer of Swan) and Pointbiz (Founder of Bitaddress.org).
Blink is an important part of the Salvadoran Bitcoin story. When I was asked if I could join the Board of Directors to help coach the team, the choice was obvious - Mike Peterson, Founder of Bitcoin Beach
A Bitcoin Beach Fund was established as part of the transaction. It was infused with shares of Blink that will be distributed to Salvadorans working actively on building Bitcoin circular economies in El Salvador.
Lukas has acquired a controlling stake in Blink and has led a seed financing round that will strengthen Blink’s position in the ecosystem and accelerate its growth.
Bitcoin community efforts have been a passion of mine since 2021 when I started the Global Bitcoin Fest podcast together with a group of other community enthusiasts. We were usually first to cover the birth of new circular economies. Joining Blink feels like a natural next step in my personal Bitcoin journey - Lukas Duczko, CEO of Blink
Galoy remains a service provider to Blink and a minority shareholder, and multiple Galoy team members are transitioning to Blink for operational expertise and service continuity.
Background
In 2020 Nicolas Burtey started Galoy and worked with a team of community leaders in El Zonte to develop the Bitcoin Beach Wallet to support the nascent local Bitcoin circular economy in El Salvador.
In 2021, the Bitcoin Beach Wallet was structured into its own company, a Salvadoran Financial Institution. In 2023, the wallet rebranded to Blink. Since then, Blink continued to grow into one of the leading “Everyday Bitcoin Wallets”.
Over time, Blink has matured beyond the “one team” approach with Galoy that helped incubate it to date. Now fully independent, Blink will continue its mission to drive grassroots Bitcoin adoption, while Galoy will fully focus on supporting growing enterprise interest in Bitcoin adoption and open source software by further developing its open source core banking platform.
