The Problem We Were Actually Solving
Our business relies on integrations with popular payment gateways, such as Stripe. However, as we expanded our reach to countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, and Bangladesh, we encountered a glaring issue: geo-blocking. These platforms, while convenient for users in developed economies, effectively shut out creators from the rest of the world. When our team first identified this problem, we assumed it was a matter of tweaking API endpoints or implementing region-specific routing. Little did we know that the real challenge lay beneath the surface.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
Initially, we attempted to sidestep the issue by using Stripe's geo-restricted APIs, hoping to work around the blockage. However, this approach led to a multitude of problems. Transactions would fail, and error messages would surface only after the payment processing pipeline had been initiated. This resulted in frustrated creators and a loss of revenue. We soon realized that geo-blocking was not just a matter of restricting API access – it was a systemic problem that permeated the entire payment processing pipeline.
The Architecture Decision
