New sanctions · Sept 30, 2026What changed, and how QvaPay keeps the lawful lanes open →
Permitted Fund FlowsSee the flows →
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⚠ COMPLIANCENot legal, tax or investment advice, and not authorization for any transaction. U.S. sanctions (31 CFR Part 515) prohibit investment or equity in any Cuban business; nothing here is a determination that a transaction is lawful. Structure anything Cuba-facing only with qualified OFAC sanctions counsel and screen every party with QvaPay Sentinel.Primary sources: OFAC Cuba Sanctions · 31 CFR Part 515 (CACR) · OFAC Cuba FAQs · Cuba Restricted List
Essay · techno-optimism

The Techno-Capitalist Vaccine

Every QvaPay account is a dose: a dollar balance, a market price, a business that answers to customers. Cuba is building immunity.

Tim Parsa · Co-Founder & CCO, QvaPay · 12 May 2026 · 3 min read Subscribe

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The Techno-Capitalist Vaccine

Sixty-seven years of central planning taught Cubans to wait: for the ration book, for the official rate, for permission. A phone with a dollar balance teaches something else. You price your work in money that holds its value. You trade at a price the market sets. You get paid by a customer, not a ministry. Once you’ve lived that, you don’t go back.

What's in the dose

  • Sound money. QUSD, a dollar token backed one to one by USDC, on a phone.
  • Market prices. A peer market that sets the real exchange rate every minute.
  • Private enterprise. Business accounts for MIPYMES, freelancers, and the self-employed.
  • Rule of law. Verified identities, screened counterparties, written rules, U.S. registration.
  • Optimism. Proof, every day, that U.S. technology works in Cuba and rewards effort.

How it spreads

Peer to peer, like everything in Cuba. A daughter in Miami sends dollars; her father learns to use them. A café owner takes QvaPay; her suppliers open accounts. A developer is paid by a client in Texas; his friends ask how.

Backstory · Erich and Bachecubano

Before QvaPay, Erich García Cruz built Bachecubano, now one of Cuba’s best-known tech channels, with more than 120,000 subscribers. He taught a country how the internet economy works. QvaPay gave that economy a dollar.

The vaccine is a working product: U.S. technology in Cuban hands, under U.S. law, every day.

Fund flows in this post

Each flow is a dose: family dollars, business accounts, pay for entrepreneurs, and market prices.

FlowHow we grow itU.S. tech meets Cuban talent
Remittances
Permitted · 31 CFR §515.570 (U.S. senders)
Marketing by use case to the diaspora in Miami and beyond; every sender and recipient screened.Diaspora dollars become working capital for families and the private businesses they start.
MIPYME business accounts
QvaPay's position · pending with OFAC (Case CU-2025-1426925-1)
MIPYME accounts marketed by use case, supported from our Miami HQ; financing for Cuban buyers once OFAC clarifies it.Cuban entrepreneurs buy U.S. equipment and software and run their companies in dollars.
Payments to digital entrepreneurs
Permitted for U.S. clients · §515.582, §515.340(b) · the freelancer's balance in Cuba: pending with OFAC
When OFAC answers, we market to Cuban freelancers and their U.S. clients.Cuban coders, designers, and writers sell their skills to the world.
P2P forex
Pending with OFAC · no authorization asserted
SkyMind matches orders and more screened traders join.Every trader is a small business: Cubans earn a spread connecting dollars and pesos.

The potential. Remittances into Cuba run an estimated $1.1–2B a year (2024; estimates vary). At the Dominican Republic’s rate per person, Cuba would receive about $9.8B, five to nine times today. That is the market QvaPay is built to serve.

How big this flow can get · a year
MarketCuba todayCuba at the Dominican Republic’s rate per person
Remittances received$1.1–2B
2024 est., estimates vary
$9.8B
DR total $11.9B (2025)

A scenario, not a forecast. The Dominican Republic received $11.9B in remittances in 2025 across 11.4 million people, about $1,040 a person; at that rate Cuba’s 9.43 million people would receive about $9.8B a year, five to nine times today. Method and sources.

Expert view · Ric Herrero and John McIntire, Americas Quarterly

Cuba’s private sector is neither a boom nor a mirage: a large, growing class of entrepreneurs operating outside the state, fragile but real, that U.S. policy should engage directly. On cubanew.com ↗

Sources

  1. Erich García Cruz, Bachecubano (YouTube) ↗
  2. EFE/Swissinfo, private SMEs approved in Cuba since 2021 exceed 11,000 ↗
  3. Directorio Cubano, private sector overtakes the state in retail sales ↗
  4. QvaPay, AML/BSA program and transparency page ↗
  5. Periódico Cubano, Cuba’s private sector imported nearly $1.2 billion in the first half of 2025 ↗
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