PPQ.ai: AI access without another subscription
By Janusz Nowakowski
Original publication: Lightning.News, 2025-07-28.
Matt built PPQ.ai around a frustration many software customers know: wanting to use a tool without taking on another subscription. He was also thinking about people who had crypto but no credit card they could use to pay for AI.
It was a familiar problem in a new setting. Before building PPQ, he had spent years looking at Bitcoin trading data and talking to the people behind it. He wanted to know what they were using it for.
Hooked by the bear market
Matt’s conversion to Bitcoin did not happen at the price peak. It happened during the 2014 to 2015 bear market, when he noticed something counterintuitive in the data: LocalBitcoins volumes were climbing in Venezuela, Nigeria, and Kenya, precisely when Western interest was fading.
To him, the figures suggested something beyond speculation: people using Bitcoin to solve practical problems.
He had no formal computer science degree. What he had was curiosity: he put himself through data science bootcamps, and every project he touched had Bitcoin at the center.
Matt describes the route traders used for remittances: someone working in Mexico would buy Bitcoin, send it to Venezuela, and the recipient would convert it locally. In the cases he studied, he says, this gave them a better exchange rate than the conventional route. Rather than traveling to Venezuela, he tracked the traders directly. Many listed their WhatsApp numbers in LocalBitcoins and Paxful ads. He messaged them. He also visited several African countries in 2022 to see comparable dynamics firsthand.
Why subscriptions pushed him to build
At the time of our interview, PPQ.ai brought models from providers including OpenAI and Anthropic into one service. Users paid for what they used, with crypto payments and support for Lightning, a network for small, fast Bitcoin payments. Matt described deposits from ten cents and an option to use the service without opening an account.
The frustration that sparked it was personal. Matt disliked subscriptions and saw another obstacle for potential customers: not everyone had a credit card they could use for the service. The crypto native audience that does exist is growing, and Matt saw a gap: premium AI access, priced and settled in a way that works globally.
He launched by posting on Twitter. He had a small following from his Bitcoin work. He posted: “Hey, I made this website, come and use it.” That was enough.
Bitcoin as infrastructure
For Matt, the payment method was part of the product. Someone with Bitcoin could try an AI model without entering a credit card or committing to a monthly bill. That gave him a customer group he already understood from years of studying how people used Bitcoin.
Matt thought the market was still small enough to go unnoticed. He also saw a reason for other companies to keep subscriptions: customers could forget they were paying, while the business kept billing them.
He had been a Lightning advocate for years, although it was growing more slowly than he had expected.
Getting started
Ask Matt what he would do differently and the answer is brief: start earlier. He already understood the audience and had a way to reach it. Taking the risk was harder.
“I think when you’re afraid of things, it causes a great delay in what you want to accomplish.”
Having some savings made it easier to take that chance. With a family to support, he needed room to try without depending on the next pay cheque.
Edited on 10 October 2026. This interview describes the products, plans and views at the time of the conversation.