Vokabul8
A real-time vocabulary wagering platform built around four game formats on a globally synchronised clock, with a social feed alongside.
View case study , Vokabul8Case study · Wallet payments
VeightPay
A payments platform built around three different kinds of account (customers, merchants and agents) with a marketplace connecting them.
Delivered
- Engagement
- Full product design and engineering
- Platforms
- Web application and dashboard
- Role
- UI/UX design and full engineering
- Stage
- Released Verify before publishing
- Industry
- Fintech
- Users
- Customers, merchants, agents
- Model
- Wallet and virtual currency
- Platforms
- Web
- Role
- Design and engineering
- Status
- Delivered
01The business situation
Not everyone who needs to pay has a card.
A great deal of payment infrastructure quietly assumes a credit card or a domiciliary account. For a large number of people, particularly across borders, neither is available. VeightPay approaches that by making the wallet the primary instrument and building the distribution around it, including a way for people to acquire balance from other people, not only from a bank.
Core challenge
Serve customers, merchants and agents from one platform, when each has a fundamentally different relationship with the same balance.
Before
Payment rails that assume a card or a bank account
- Card Requirement
- Domiciliary Accounts
- Cross-border Friction
- Chargeback Risk
After
One wallet, three ways to hold and move it
- Standard
- Merchant
- Agent
- Marketplace
VeightPay Platform
02The system at a glance
One wallet. Four connected experiences.
- Admin Dashboard Accounts, transactions, integrations
- Customer Wallet Hold and spend balance
- Merchant Integration Accept payments via API
- Agent Marketplace Distribute balance on commission
Core PlatformAccount-typed wallet with encrypted APIs
- Wallet Balance
- Merchant APIs
- Agent Marketplace
- Commission Model
- Transaction Ledger
- Notifications
03Workflow 01
Three account types, one balance.
A standard account holds and spends. A merchant accepts. An agent distributes. The same unit of balance moves between all three, which is what makes the platform a system rather than three features.
assets/portfolio/vpay/workflow-accounts.png · 16 / 11
- The wallet is the instrumentBalance is held in the platform, so paying does not require a card or a bank relationship.
- Spendable across platformsBalance can be used on connected products rather than only inside this one.
- Merchants accept without card railsA business integrates the platform directly and receives payment from any country.
04Workflow 02
Agents are the distribution network.
An agent buys balance from the platform and resells it in a marketplace at a commission they choose. That turns balance distribution into a human network rather than a banking integration.
-
1Agent acquires balance
Image placeholder Agent account acquiring balance from the platform administrator, showing the amount and the resulting agent holding. assets/portfolio/vpay/step-agent-buy.png · 1 / 2.04 -
2Lists at a commission
Image placeholder Agent creating a marketplace listing: the amount offered and the commission rate they have set. assets/portfolio/vpay/step-agent-list.png · 1 / 2.04 -
3Customer buys
Image placeholder Customer browsing marketplace listings by rate and purchasing balance, with the transaction confirmation. assets/portfolio/vpay/step-customer-buy.png · 1 / 2.04
05Workflow 03
Merchants integrate once and are done.
For a business, the platform is an API. Encrypted endpoints let it be embedded in an existing checkout, with administration of those integrations handled from the dashboard.
- Encrypted merchant APIsIntegration is through secured endpoints rather than a hosted redirect.
- Provisioned from the dashboardNew merchant integrations are set up administratively rather than through engineering.
- One ledger behind everythingCustomer, merchant and agent movements all resolve against the same transaction record.
assets/portfolio/vpay/admin-dashboard.png · 16 / 10
assets/portfolio/vpay/merchant-checkout.png · 1 / 2.04
06Engineering behind the product
The system behind three account types.
The complexity in a payments product is rarely the payment. It is the number of distinct relationships one balance has to support.
-
Account-type model
Standard, merchant and agent accounts have different capabilities and constraints against a shared wallet and ledger.
-
Marketplace mechanics
Agents list balance at a self-set commission and customers purchase from those listings, which required its own matching and settlement rules.
-
Encrypted merchant APIs
Merchants integrate through secured endpoints designed to be embedded in an existing platform.
-
Transaction ledger
Every movement between accounts resolves against one record, which is what keeps balances reconcilable.
-
Cross-platform balance
VeightCoin balance is usable on connected products (a holder can spend the same wallet on the Vokabul8 gaming platform), so value is not trapped in one application.
-
Administrative provisioning
Accounts, transactions and merchant integrations are administered from a dedicated dashboard.
-
Notification and email services
Transactional messaging runs through OneSignal for notifications and Mailgun for email.
07Technical architecture
Under the hood
A Laravel platform with encrypted APIs for merchant integration, and a Vue front end across all three account types.
Backend
- Laravel
- PHP
- Encrypted merchant APIs
Frontend
- Vue.js
- Tailwind CSS
Data
- MySQL
Cloud & services
- DigitalOcean
- OneSignal (push)
- Mailgun (email)
08Delivery journey
How the platform was delivered.
-
Product definition
Full product scope, not an MVP
-
UX
Design the three account experiences
-
Approval
Client sign-off on the designs
-
Parallel build
Web app and dashboard together
-
Sprints
Iterative delivery against the backlog
-
Release
First version to market
-
Support
Iterate on user feedback
Timeline and scope changed during the engagement before release. No claim is made here about licensing, regulatory status or transaction volumes; none is documented. Verify before publishing
09Where it stands today
What the platform brings together
- A wallet usable without a card or bank account
- Cross-border payment acceptance for merchants
- An agent marketplace with self-set commissions
- Encrypted APIs for integration into other platforms
- One ledger across all three account types
- Administrative control over accounts and integrations
Related systems
Clunker Busters
A connected platform for customers, inspectors, operations, reporting and payments.
Multi-sided platforms fail at the seams.
We model how each party touches the same balance before writing the first endpoint.