Rayo | Devpost

Inspiration

I was inspired to build the RAYO platform after experiencing the frustration and inefficiencies that latinoamerican people suffer on traditional money transfer methods when living in the US trying to send money to their own family in any country of Latin America. I saw an opportunity to leverage the Lightning Network technology to provide a faster, cheaper, and more secure solution for Salvadorans living in the US to send money back home. With the new opportunities that El Salvador has, I desire to make a positive impact in the lives of others, introducing them to financial and digital inclusion using technology is what motivated and inspired me to build this platform.

What it does

Rayo is a platform that uses Lightning Network and XRP Ledger. The bitcoin lightning network is integrated in multiple wallets that people use in El Salvador and my idea is to connect Stablecoins that live in the XRP Ledger to all of them.

The user in the US holds Bitstamp dollars
We convert those Bitstamp dollars into bitcoin
The recipient in El Salvador then receives bitcoin over the Lightning Network and gets credited.

The use of Lightning Network would make the transaction faster and cheaper than traditional methods, while the use of stablecoin guarantees a proper store of value. This platform is especially beneficial for individuals who need to send money regularly to their families in El Salvador, as it would reduce the cost and time associated with traditional remittance methods.

How we built it

Using Typescript we built an app integrated with Gem Wallet so the user can sign transactions. Once the user approves a transaction we convert those USD into bitcoin and using a 3rd party service we send the payment via lightning network.

Challenges we ran into

Rayo must have security measures in place to prevent fraud and protect user data and this includes implementing security protocols so thinking about security and possible attacks consumes a lot of time. Another challenge is the user experience, because I think that to be successful, the platform must offer a user-friendly experience for both senders and recipients and this will make Rayo successful in our goal to increase financial and digital inclusion in our market, of course it is important to support Spanish and English languages.