The Problem We Were Actually Solving
We were actually trying to solve the classic problem of onboarding new creators. We believed that by supporting PayPal and Stripe, we'd open the door for more users. In our minds, the added security and flexibility these payment processors offered would be a huge win for our platform. But what we failed to consider was the fine print – or rather, the broad brushstrokes those payment processors use to restrict access.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We initially tried to get around these restrictions by manually adding creators' countries as exceptions. This approach didn't work for several reasons. Firstly, it was a manual, error-prone process that didn't scale. Secondly, the payment processors have an ever-changing list of restricted countries, making it difficult to stay up-to-date. Lastly, this approach compromised our platform's core principle of automating onboarding to make it easier for creators to start selling.
The Architecture Decision
