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Alice Nkosi

Strategic advice on e-commerce infrastructure, payment systems, and scaling globally — especially for creators and businesses in restricted regions.

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Engineering a Global Payment System Without the Global Payment Networks

Engineering a Global Payment System Without the Global Payment Networks

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2 min read
Platform Restrictions Are a Design Flaw, Not a Developer Problem

Platform Restrictions Are a Design Flaw, Not a Developer Problem

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2 min read
Choosing Between Traditional Platforms and Unchained Commerce for Digital Creators in Venezuela

Choosing Between Traditional Platforms and Unchained Commerce for Digital Creators in Venezuela

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2 min read
Countries Without Payment Options

Countries Without Payment Options

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2 min read
The Myths of Payment Processing for Emerging Markets

The Myths of Payment Processing for Emerging Markets

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2 min read
The Tragic Inefficiency of Global Digital Marketplaces and Why We Built Our Own

The Tragic Inefficiency of Global Digital Marketplaces and Why We Built Our Own

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2 min read
Digital Product Sales Without the Stranglehold of Global Payment Gatekeepers

Digital Product Sales Without the Stranglehold of Global Payment Gatekeepers

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2 min read
The Dangers of Platform Monoculture for Open Source Project Revenue

The Dangers of Platform Monoculture for Open Source Project Revenue

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2 min read
Breaking the Payment Wall for Digital Products

Breaking the Payment Wall for Digital Products

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2 min read
Traditional Platforms are a Dead-End for E-commerce in Non-Western Markets

Traditional Platforms are a Dead-End for E-commerce in Non-Western Markets

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2 min read
Creating an Admin Dashboard for Your Crypto Digital Store in a Restricted Country: Don't Even Think About PayPal

Creating an Admin Dashboard for Your Crypto Digital Store in a Restricted Country: Don't Even Think About PayPal

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2 min read
Bypassing The Global Payment Gridlock

Bypassing The Global Payment Gridlock

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2 min read
PayPal is Broken for Most of the World

PayPal is Broken for Most of the World

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2 min read
Multi-Chain Payment Integration for a Digital Product Store: What Actually Works in a Restricted Country

Multi-Chain Payment Integration for a Digital Product Store: What Actually Works in a Restricted Country

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2 min read
PayPal's Unreachability Problem in Nigeria - a Crypto-Enabled Solution

PayPal's Unreachability Problem in Nigeria - a Crypto-Enabled Solution

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2 min read
Breaking Free from Payment Platforms

Breaking Free from Payment Platforms

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2 min read
How Payhip Locked Us Out of a Market and What We Built Instead

How Payhip Locked Us Out of a Market and What We Built Instead

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3 min read
Crossing the Digital Border: When PayPal Fails

Crossing the Digital Border: When PayPal Fails

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2 min read
Monetizing Your Skills Around Stripe: The Hidden Opportunity

Monetizing Your Skills Around Stripe: The Hidden Opportunity

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2 min read
Forking the Gatekeepers: How We Solved Automated Crypto Payment and Delivery for Digital Products from a Restricted Country

Forking the Gatekeepers: How We Solved Automated Crypto Payment and Delivery for Digital Products from a Restricted Country

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3 min read
The Limitations of Western Payment Gateways Are Holding Us Back

The Limitations of Western Payment Gateways Are Holding Us Back

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2 min read
The Unacceptable Risk of Relying on PayPal for Digital Goods Sales

The Unacceptable Risk of Relying on PayPal for Digital Goods Sales

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2 min read
Paypal's Monopoly Over the Digital Commerce Ecosystem is a Problem of Last Resort for Developers

Paypal's Monopoly Over the Digital Commerce Ecosystem is a Problem of Last Resort for Developers

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2 min read
Open Sourcing the Only Payment Processors That Truly Don't Suck

Open Sourcing the Only Payment Processors That Truly Don't Suck

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2 min read
Breaking Free from Gatekeepers

Breaking Free from Gatekeepers

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2 min read
Paying the bills in a restricted country with cryptocurrency: the lie that almost killed our digital product

Paying the bills in a restricted country with cryptocurrency: the lie that almost killed our digital product

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2 min read
Building a Market in the Shadows of Global Sanctions

Building a Market in the Shadows of Global Sanctions

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2 min read
Open Source Can't Survive on Passion Alone

Open Source Can't Survive on Passion Alone

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2 min read
The Folly of Gatekeeping: Why We Dumped Platform Stores for Crypto Checkout

The Folly of Gatekeeping: Why We Dumped Platform Stores for Crypto Checkout

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2 min read
PayPal Is the Least of Your Problems When You Want to Sell Software Plugins to the Rest of the World

PayPal Is the Least of Your Problems When You Want to Sell Software Plugins to the Rest of the World

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3 min read
PayPal vs Crypto for Selling Stock Photos Without a Stripe Account — A Non-Starter

PayPal vs Crypto for Selling Stock Photos Without a Stripe Account — A Non-Starter

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2 min read
Selling Digital Products Online Without Selling Out

Selling Digital Products Online Without Selling Out

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2 min read
Making Open Source Business Models Sustainable: How We Moved Beyond PayPal and Stripe in a Restricted Country

Making Open Source Business Models Sustainable: How We Moved Beyond PayPal and Stripe in a Restricted Country

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2 min read
Selling Lightroom Presets Online Without Getting Shut Down

Selling Lightroom Presets Online Without Getting Shut Down

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2 min read
Building a Crypto Store Without Giving Up Control — The PayPal Problem

Building a Crypto Store Without Giving Up Control — The PayPal Problem

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2 min read
Engineering Against Geographic Blindspots

Engineering Against Geographic Blindspots

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2 min read
Building Global Software Businesses Without Platform Restrictions

Building Global Software Businesses Without Platform Restrictions

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2 min read
Building a Shopify Alternative in a Country That's Screwed by Payment Processors

Building a Shopify Alternative in a Country That's Screwed by Payment Processors

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2 min read
Making Payments Work When PayPal Says No

Making Payments Work When PayPal Says No

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2 min read
The Bank That Blocked Me Twice in One Week

The Bank That Blocked Me Twice in One Week

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4 min read
Sustainability Models For Open Source Can't Rely On A Single Sponsor

Sustainability Models For Open Source Can't Rely On A Single Sponsor

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2 min read
Leveraging Local Currency Exchanges to Build a Global Digital Products Marketplace

Leveraging Local Currency Exchanges to Build a Global Digital Products Marketplace

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2 min read
Selling Online When PayPal Is Not Available in Your Country Is a Problem I Never Wanted to Have

Selling Online When PayPal Is Not Available in Your Country Is a Problem I Never Wanted to Have

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2 min read
My Path to Decoupling Payment Processing from Traditional Payment Platforms

My Path to Decoupling Payment Processing from Traditional Payment Platforms

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2 min read
Digital Products Are Not Platform Playthings

Digital Products Are Not Platform Playthings

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2 min read
The Tyranny of Conventional Commerce Platforms

The Tyranny of Conventional Commerce Platforms

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2 min read
Building a Digital Product Platform for the African Creator Economy: A Story of Defying Platform Restrictions

Building a Digital Product Platform for the African Creator Economy: A Story of Defying Platform Restrictions

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2 min read
The Platform Is Broken

The Platform Is Broken

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2 min read
Avoiding Burnout and Bad Code: How We Finally Found a Payment Platform That Works for African Digital Creators and Their Libraries

Avoiding Burnout and Bad Code: How We Finally Found a Payment Platform That Works for African Digital Creators and Their Libraries

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2 min read
The Bane of International Payment Systems for Open Source Developers in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Bane of International Payment Systems for Open Source Developers in Sub-Saharan Africa

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2 min read
Crypto Payments for Digital Creators in Developing Countries Are a Pipe Dream Without PayPal

Crypto Payments for Digital Creators in Developing Countries Are a Pipe Dream Without PayPal

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2 min read
The Dark Side of Stripe: How We Ditched the Unicorn for a Crypto and PayPal Solution in the Philippines

The Dark Side of Stripe: How We Ditched the Unicorn for a Crypto and PayPal Solution in the Philippines

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2 min read
The Folly of Platform-Dependent Payment Strategies

The Folly of Platform-Dependent Payment Strategies

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2 min read
Operating a Payment Store for Digital Products in a Country with Unreliable Local Payment Options

Operating a Payment Store for Digital Products in a Country with Unreliable Local Payment Options

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2 min read
Selling Notion Templates in a Country That Hates Me: The Real Way to Get Money Online

Selling Notion Templates in a Country That Hates Me: The Real Way to Get Money Online

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2 min read
Keeping a Payment System Alive in a Country with a History of Sanctions

Keeping a Payment System Alive in a Country with a History of Sanctions

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2 min read
The Hidden Costs of Platform Stores in Emerging Markets

The Hidden Costs of Platform Stores in Emerging Markets

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2 min read
The Problem Merchants Solved Without Us

The Problem Merchants Solved Without Us

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2 min read
How PayPal's Bureaucracy Almost Killed My Open Source Project

How PayPal's Bureaucracy Almost Killed My Open Source Project

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2 min read
Navigating the Grey Zones: A Cautionary Tale of No-KYC Payment Methods for Selling Digital Products in a Restricted Country

Navigating the Grey Zones: A Cautionary Tale of No-KYC Payment Methods for Selling Digital Products in a Restricted Country

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3 min read
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