The Problem We Were Actually Solving
As a data engineer, I've spent years building data infrastructure to support high-growth businesses. But my latest project was different. My company was attempting to sell stock photos to customers in a restricted country, where the usual payment gateways – PayPal, Stripe, Gumroad, and Payhip – just wouldn't work. At first, it seemed like a straightforward problem, but the more I dug in, the more I realized we were facing a classic case of a platform problem masquerading as a technical challenge.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
The initial approach was to use a workaround: we asked customers to purchase a gift card from a supported country and then manually transfer the funds to our restricted country account. It seemed like a viable solution, but the execution was clunky, and customers got frustrated with the hassle. We also tried integrating with local payment processors, but their APIs were limited, and they charged exorbitant fees. It became clear that our makeshift solution was a Band-Aid on a bullet wound – we needed a more robust and scalable solution.
The Architecture Decision
