Digital Exclusion Is a Technical Problem

The Problem We Were Actually Solving

Our platform relied on traditional payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, which were easily integrated into our system but excluded a large portion of our users. In Kenya and Ethiopia, for example, M-Pesa is the most widely used mobile payment system, but it's not supported by our current payment gateways. This meant that creators in these countries couldn't receive payments for their digital products, making our platform inaccessible to them.

What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)

We tried to add support for M-Pesa by integrating a third-party API, but it was a disaster. The API was slow, unreliable, and had high latency, causing our platform to timeout and fail. We also encountered issues with currency conversion, which led to incorrect exchange rates and lost revenue for our creators. On top of that, the API was chargeable, which added unnecessary expense to our operations. We realized that relying on a third-party API wasn't a viable solution.

The Architecture Decision

After weeks of research and experimentation, we decided to build our own payment gateway from scratch using the Unchained Commerce protocol. This protocol allowed us to create a decentralized payment system that supported multiple payment methods, including M-Pesa. We built a microservices architecture with separate components for payment processing, currency conversion, and reconciliation. This design allowed us to scale easily, reduce latency, and improve overall system reliability.

What The Numbers Said After

After deploying our new payment gateway, we saw a significant increase in creator adoption in Kenya and Ethiopia. Our platform's payment success rate improved from 70% to 95%, and our revenue from these countries increased by 300%. Our creators were thrilled to have access to M-Pesa, and our platform's user base expanded exponentially.

What I Would Do Differently

If I were to do it again, I would have invested more time in researching and understanding the nuances of the payment systems in each country. We assumed that M-Pesa was the only payment method needed in Kenya and Ethiopia, but there are other popular payment systems like Tingg and WorldRemit. I would have also considered partnering with local payment providers to ensure a seamless experience for our creators.

Our decision to build our own payment gateway was a costly and time-consuming one, but it paid off in the end. We learned that digital exclusion is a technical problem that requires a technical solution. By building a decentralized payment system that supports multiple payment methods, we were able to reach a wider audience and create a more inclusive platform.

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