What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We first attempted to work with the existing global payment gateways to offer digital products in Bangladeshi taka and other emerging market currencies. What we didn't realize at the time was that every time a payment gateway added support for an emerging market, they had to add a new server, hire more developers, and train their support team. That simply wasn't feasible for us as an open source project, which meant our merchants were still limited by the traditional platforms.
The Architecture Decision
We decided to take a different approach: we forked some of the existing open source projects that provided the necessary infrastructure for digital product sales, and we built an entirely new architecture on top of them. This new architecture allowed us to support multiple emerging market currencies, verify identities through local banks, and even enable new types of digital products like microfinance and insurance. We called this project Unchained Commerce.
What The Numbers Said After
After launching Unchained Commerce, we saw a significant increase in adoption - over 50% of merchants from emerging markets were now using our platform to sell digital products. The numbers also showed us that the most successful merchants were those who used our platform to sell a specific type of digital product - microloans to small businesses. This led us to realize that our platform was not just about providing a digital payment system, but also about creating financial inclusion in emerging markets.
What I Would Do Differently
In hindsight, I would have done more research on the local banking systems in emerging markets before deciding on the architecture of Unchained Commerce. I would have also considered working more closely with the local governments and regulatory bodies to ensure that our platform was compliant with their regulations from the start. This would have saved us a lot of time and resources in the long run.
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