International Payments on Contra

Previously on Contra, International Independents were only able to withdraw funds from their Contra wallet with Crypto (USDC). With this initiative, we sought out to make it easier for Independents abroad to setup a bank account and get paid out in their local currency.

Our existing solution for International Payouts, USDC, was both cost prohibitive and difficult to use for many Independents that we spoke to. By introducing Bank Account Payouts internationally we had the opportunity to make Contra more accessible to Indys around the world.

To get this up and running, we had to update our Payments infrastructure and utilize Stripe Cross Border Payouts. In spec'ing this out we were apt to built toward the future as we envision payments on Contra to be a flexible system where Clients can pay however they'd like and then Indys can withdraw funds from their Contra wallet in whatever manner they prefer (Crypto, USD, local currency via Bank Account or Debit Card).

From a user experience point of view, we wanted to make this flow streamlined and consistent from country-to-country so we can get this rolled out to as many Independents in as many countries, as fast as possible.

Independents in Stripe Supported Countries are now able to get paid out via their national currency by connecting their Bank Account as their payout methods. This was built to be flexible, so international independents are able to add both a Bank Account as well as a USDC Wallet address for withdrawals and choose at time of withdrawal which they prefer as default payout method.

Flexible payments is a critical piece of infrastructure that freelancers need to be successful, and when coupled with commission-free payments is a powerful mechanism to empower independents and support the future of work.

We learned that localization is a major factor when it comes to international payments and that it will be a long tail initiative to properly support Independents in Countries all over the world. For now, we're able to roll out international payments to more individuals by leaning on Stripe for onboarding, however we like to keep all activities in Contra as much as possible since this gives us the most ability to support freelancers as we best know how to.

We'll continue expanding our payments support and optimizing out existing solutions to better meet the needs of Independents worldwide. This is just the beginning.