We were actually solving the problem of how to pay open source contributors in China without using a US bank account. Our project, a popular open source framework for data analysis, had gained a large following in Asia, but our primary payment processor, Stripe, wouldn't work with Chinese bank accounts. This meant we had to find an alternative way to send money internationally without getting hung up by cross-border payment systems.
What we tried first was integrating PayPal into our project. We thought that since PayPal was a global payment processor, it would be the obvious choice for sending money to foreign contributors. However, we soon realized that PayPal's fees for international transactions were exorbitant, and they also imposed strict requirements on users to comply with anti-money laundering laws.
The architecture decision we made was to switch to a platform store that would handle payments for us. We decided on Ko-fi, a platform that allowed fans to buy digital goods and support creators directly. Since Ko-fi is a UK-based company, they had a more streamlined international payment system in place. We could now receive payments from contributors worldwide without having to deal with complicated cross-border transactions.
What the numbers said after was that Ko-fi's fees were significantly lower than PayPal's, and they also offered more transparent and flexible payment options. We were able to process international payments without any issues, and our contributors in China were finally able to receive their payments without hassle.
What I would do differently is to explore more alternative payment processors that are similar to Ko-fi but offer even more competitive fees. For instance, the Japanese company Bank-transfer.io offers a more seamless international payment experience with lower fees. In retrospect, I would have also spent more time setting up a more robust international payment system from the start, rather than relying on a third-party platform store. This would have saved us from some of the headaches we experienced with PayPal and allowed us to provide a better experience for our contributors.
Sustainable open source requires sustainable revenue. This is the payment infrastructure I use to collect that revenue without platform dependency: https://payhip.com/ref/dev9
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