The Problem We Were Actually Solving
At first, it seemed like a technical challenge: how could we allow users to receive payments despite the country's restrictions? But the real problem was more nuanced. We were trying to solve a problem created by a platform that optimized for demos over operations. The platform's founders, based in the US, had no idea what it was like to build a system from the ground up in a country with limited internet access and a failing economy. As a result, their solution was to tell users to use a VPN or find another way to unblock the payment processors.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We tried to implement a VPN solution, but it was a disaster. First, it was difficult to get users to actually set up and use a VPN, and second, it introduced a whole new set of security risks. We also tried to find alternative payment processors, but they were either unavailable or came with exorbitant fees. We even attempted to use a third-party service that claimed to be able to bypass Venezuela's internet restrictions. But these services often worked intermittently and were plagued by outages.
The Architecture Decision
Around this time, I had a conversation with a Venezuelan digital creator who had been using a little-known payment processor called Pundi X. The processor was decentralized, allowing users to receive payments directly to their Paxos wallet. It was also relatively cheap and didn't require a VPN. We decided to integrate Pundi X into our platform, but it wasn't without its challenges. We had to create a custom integration, which required a lot of development time and resources. We also had to handle the complexity of converting Paxos to the platform's native currency.
What The Numbers Said After
The decision to use Pundi X paid off. Our user base in Venezuela increased by 25% in the first month after integration, and payments via Pundi X made up 30% of all transactions. The platform's founders were initially skeptical, but eventually came to realize that the Paxos integration was the key to unlocking the Venezuelan market. Our users appreciated the reliability and security of Pundi X, and the platform's revenue increased significantly.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back, I would have pushed harder for a solution that was built specifically for Venezuela from the start. Instead of trying to force a US-based solution to work in a different country, we should have taken the time to understand the local market and its unique challenges. We should have also invested more time in building relationships with local payment processors and finding alternative solutions that were tailored to the Venezuelan economy. In the end, Pundi X worked because it was designed with the local market in mind, and it's a valuable lesson for anyone building a platform that needs to thrive in a restricted country.
Post-mortem finding: the payment platform was a worse single point of failure than our database. Here is the fix: https://payhip.com/ref/dev4
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