Stellar Community Fund

By Paychant

Anchor On & off-ramp in Africa

SCF #21

$100.0K

Legacy v5.0 Community Award

Awarded

Paychant is a payment gateway that helps Africans on-ramp and off-ramp right inside any self-custodial wallets, DEX, or dApps using Africa's localized payment methods.

Products & Services

Paychant is a complaint fiat on-and-off ramp solution that supports cash in and out of crypto via mobile money and bank transfer in Africa.

The problems Paychant solves

Paychant gives African businesses and individuals who are underserved by fiat rails a better way to access digital dollars (Stellar USDC) for cross-border remittance, payroll payments, and individual savings against local currency devaluation. Through Paychant infrastructure, businesses and individuals can onramp and offramp digital dollars through mobile money and bank transfers.

We’re building this ramp anchor using the SEP24 wallet standard (Hosted Deposits and withdrawals), so it will be compatible with all standard wallets and dApps on Stellar, this will enable a smooth on and off-ramp of Stellar USDC through deep local payment method coverage in Africa.

The payment rails we support are: 1. M-Pesa in Kenya. 2. MTN MoMo, AirtelTigo, Vodafone cash in Ghana. 3. Airtel Money, MTN MoMo, in Uganda. 4. Local bank transfer in Nigeria.

The Stellar's integration with Moneygram is a great step in making cash on/offramp more usable for remittance, however, there's an additional possibility to improve usability by on/off-ramping directly into the recipient's mobile money wallet, which is what we're building for this project.

Key Features we will provide: 1. Mobile money payment method: the predominant method of payment in Africa. This will ensure a simple cash-in and out with just a phone number. 2. Bank account number validation: We've incorporated a system that enables instant account number validation for all banks in Nigeria, creating a smooth UX for offramping. 3. Phone number Auth: We strongly support a mobile-first approach, hence, we use phone numbers as a method of authentication.

Use case

Within any Stellar wallets or dApps, users would be able to cash in or cash out using the wallet or dApps in-app native experience. After selecting Paychant, if it's the users' first time, they will be asked to provide their KYC alongside their phone number. Paychant will send an OTP to confirm the user is associated with the phone number provided. Thereafter in subsequent visits, the user will only enter the amount to cash out. Same process for cash-in (onramp).

Requested Budget

$100.0K

Team

Paychant is founded by Moses and Gabriel, brothers and seasoned engineers, bring over 14 years of combined experience in the tech industry. In 2017, they played a pivotal role as founding members of Tigereum, a London-based blockchain remittance startup. At Tigereum, they led the development of an AI-powered chatbot that enabled cross-border remittances to Africa via popular social media platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and Skype. Their work at Tigereum provided invaluable insights into the practical applications of blockchain in solving real-world payment challenges.