Fostering Open Source community knowledge in partnership with Stripe
Industry
Finance
Output
Mobile app
Highlights
- Brought a community of hundreds of developers together on a real-time communication channel
- Upgraded the React Native bridge to mobile for Android with the latest API regulatory changes
- Stripe partner companies had the updates they needed to comply with European regulation changes ahead of the deadline
The challenge
Stripe is available to businesses in more than 34 countries, and supports online transactions from customers in 195 countries. With a global reach and a strong network of partner brands and companies that rely on their online payment processing products, Stripe has a reputation for reliability.
In 2019, new European regulations were implemented requiring multi-factor authentication during transactions. Prior to this project, many Stripe partners were relying on an open-source React Native bridge to mobile. This limited the number of partners who could seamlessly transition to the regulation-compatible API. The small and medium businesses that use this open source library would have lost significant revenue without the updates, as their EU customer's transactions might have failed without the necessary changes.
Background
As of September 14, 2019, European nations adopted the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). A component of these regulations is Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), a requirement that all online transactions use multi-factor authentication to reduce the incidence of credit card information theft. The authentication process requires the use of two of three possible steps: Something customers memorize, like a PIN; Something they own, like a smartphone; Or something they are, like fingerprint identification.
The process
Over a 6-week period, our team contributed to the open source project and built the community of beta testers. We developed the new API updates for Android and made it available to use. In identifying the problem (an open source library that was not updated in preparation for regulatory changes) and defining the solution (updating this library well ahead of schedule), we took Stripe and their users from at-risk volume to SCA-ready.
Working closely with Stripe’s developer advocates, we prioritized implementing these changes well ahead of the EU regulation changes so that Stripe partner companies would have enough time to adopt the changes and would not be impacted by the deadline.
Creating a community of beta testers who donated their time to this project was key to delivering results in such a short timeline. However, GitHub users will know that work can slow down when face-to-face communication isn’t possible. To work around this problem, we created a practical solution by setting up a ticket in GitHub that linked to a Discord channel where discussion happened in real-time, facilitating problem solving and keeping the workflow fast and high-quality. Developers from major companies rallied to the open source project, using their expertise to complete the project in just a few weeks.
Creating a community of beta testers who donated their time to this project was key to delivering results in such a short timeline. However, GitHub users will know that work can slow down when face-to-face communication isn’t possible. To work around this problem, we created a practical solution by setting up a ticket in GitHub that linked to a Discord channel where discussion happened in real-time, facilitating problem solving and keeping the workflow fast and high-quality. Developers from major companies rallied to the open source project, using their expertise to complete the project in just a few weeks.
The outcome
Building community is central to how Rangle works. The open source project makes it possible for Stripe users to interface with two SDKs to ensure their codebase is compliant.
Helping other companies with their efforts to comply with new European regulations was an important goal, but the benefit of creating community cannot be overstated. Setting up or contributing to open source projects fosters collaboration from developers around the world and allows our community to grow together.
Rangle is now a certified Stripe partner.
Rangle is now a certified Stripe partner.