2025 was a year of steady, meaningful progress for Paytaca—expanding real-world Bitcoin Cash usage, delivering consistent product improvements, growing community-funded education programs, and laying the groundwork for our largest wallet upgrade to date, arriving in early January 2026.
Merchant Adoption & Partnerships
This year, Paytaca expanded its merchant ecosystem through hands-on onboarding, strategic partnerships, and measured international growth.
Merchant growth in the Philippines and Taiwan: A total of 45 new merchants were onboarded in the Philippines and 8 in Taiwan in 2025. Local growth was led by Tacloban (18), Ormoc (17), and Cebu Province (10 combined). In Taiwan, adoption was led by Kaohsiung (5), followed by Tainan (2) and New Taipei City (1), reflecting steady and organic cross-border expansion.
Notable onboardings included:
- Tacloban: Two Petron gas stations, expanding BCH usage into fuel purchases and daily essentials.
- Ormoc: 25th Lane Cafe and other daily-spend establishments reinforcing grassroots usage.
- Cebu: Evercare Pharmacy (~30 branches planned, with the rollout starting at Cebu Doctors Hospital), Bakery Soesterberg, and Break 100 Sports Lounge (Nustar Cebu), establishing Cebu as a strategic adoption corridor.
Hiverooms partnership: BCH payments enabled for 30+ accommodation listings on their booking platform, validating BCH as a payment channel in tourism and hospitality.
International adoption continued through partner-led and self-onboarding activity, most notably in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Lebanon, Argentina, Mozambique, and additional emerging locations. As of year-end, more than 251 merchants are visible on the global merchant map at map.paytaca.com.
No custodians. No intermediaries. Real peer-to-peer electronic cash. Adoption grew through presence, demonstration, and real transactions—not hype.
Community Engagement
Paytaca actively participated in local cultural and entrepreneurial events to promote Bitcoin Cash adoption and engage with communities: 2025 reaffirmed that local, on-ground participation is more valuable than speculative surges. Real commerce drives real adoption.
- Masadya: The Bazaar of Life (June and October, Tacloban) – Sponsored booths, live BCH demos, and onboarding of ~a dozen merchants across two events.
- St. Paul’s School of Professional Studies (SPSPS, Palo, Leyte) Entrep Mall – Recurring marketplace participation, onboarding students, vendors, and MSMEs.
- Ongoing user engagement through Paytaca Talks, giveaways, merchant support, and constructive feedback loops.
This year demonstrated that local, hands-on presence outperforms unsustainable hype-driven growth.
Product & Ecosystem Milestones
2025 focused on shipping, improving reliability, and preparing for scale.
- The Paytaca wallet app shipped 12 releases in 2025, improving stability, UX, token workflows, and readiness for the January 2026 flagship upgrade.
- Payment Hub Beta launched in March: a non-custodial BCH payment gateway for online merchants with simple API integration.
- LIFT utility token announced in May: designed for ecosystem growth, incentives, subscription unlocks, and future governance. This quickly gained strong support from a few aligned early supporters who recognized its potential to fuel long-term ecosystem expansion. Rollout of additional features that build on token utility, rewards, and governance is expected in the first half of 2026. More info at paytaca.com/token
- Paytaca POS v0.5.5 (November) delivered fungible CashToken support (MUSD + custom), updated formatting, and seamless PayPro token payments.
- StableHedge Alpha (January–February) introduced a tokenized hedging framework via AnyHedge, fully non-custodial and positioned for production use in 2026.
- CashTokens Studio continued as the primary tool for CashToken creation across the ecosystem.
- Wallet upgrade previews showcased integrated Cauldron DEX (direct BCH ↔ token swaps) and streamlined token management, releasing early January 2026.
- Public support reaffirmed for the May 2026 BCH network upgrade (CHIPs) focused on scripting and contract capability.
Theme of the year: build utility, not speculation.
Education & Developer Empowerment
- “Coding Smart Contracts in CashScript” workshop series delivered, funded through community crowdfunding via fundme.cash.
- Hundreds of students trained across 12 institutions in Tacloban, Ormoc, and Cebu (EVSU, UV, USJR, UC Lapu-Lapu Mandaue, and others).
- Hands-on BCH, CashTokens, and smart contract training continued despite brief delays caused by regional earthquakes.
- Sponsored COMPILE 2025 by Dev8; CEO Joemar Taganna presented a keynote on sustaining momentum through vision, execution discipline, and practical innovation.
Education is now a core pillar of Paytaca’s growth strategy
Thought Leadership
- Keynote at Cebu Blockchain Conference: “Revolutionizing Commerce with Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash.”
- Presentation at the 34th Visayas Area Business Conference on digitally enabled commerce.
- DICT Regional Office VIII Executive Briefing on a phased roadmap toward decentralized public finance and modern payment infrastructure.
Paytaca’s role continues to expand from product builder to ecosystem contributor—informing strategy, policy, and public-sector innovation.
Closing Remarks
Thank you to our users, merchants, partners (especially in Taiwan and the Philippines), educators, crowdfunders, investors, early LIFT token supporters, and the global Bitcoin Cash community.
With our infrastructure live, developers trained, communities engaged, and the January 2026 wallet upgrade ready for rollout, we enter the new year prepared to accelerate open, permissionless, peer-to-peer electronic cash worldwide.
-- The Paytaca Team