How can a foreigner pay easily like locals in Argentina?
Overview
As many people know, Argentina is very renowned for having a troubled economic situation with high inflation. Due to complex economic situation and system of Argentina, foreigners in Argentina have a lot of difficulties to use payment systems like locals.
WapuPay is a crypto-fiat wallet service designed to solve these user pain points. Currently, we are targeting Argentina and developing a product that allows nomads to use the payment system just like locals.
I joined Wapupay Team, after my presentation of Cambio (Money exchange) wallet use case research in Mubuenos event.
Because my interest to solve problem of international remittance by crypto is simillar to the problem that wapupay team wants to solve, so after getting offer to help their UXUI Design I stayed more in Argentina to proceed the project.
Location
Remote, Argentina
Industry
Fintech
Role
Product Design
BI Design, Operation
Context
How is Argentina’s economic situation now?
Problem
1. High fee
In Argentina, foreigners can only withdraw up to $100 USD with fees over 10% per transaction.
Additionally, using foreign-issued cards incurs high payment fees.
2. Local currency devaluation & Goverment’s regulation
To manage hyperinflation, the Argentinian government limits how much foreign currency people and businesses can buy and sets an official exchange rate.
However, these strict rules have led to a black market, known as the "Blue Dollar," where foreign currency is exchanged at much higher rates than the official ones.
Due to these circumstances, foreigners in Argentina have a lot of obstacles to use payment system comparing to other countries.
2. Money Exchange in Black market
So even if it’s not legal way, many foreigners in Argentina, go to exchange house in black market because of its higher exchange rate than official one and Western Unions, however it’s hard to find trustful one.
3. High Crypto Adaptation
Many Argentinians have turned to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and stablecoins (e.g., USDT, USDC) to protect their wealth.
Because these digital currencies are seen as a more stable alternative to the volatile Argentine Peso.
3. NO DNI = NO Service
In Argentina, the DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) is essential for accessing many financial services, due to regulations on identity verification and fraud prevention.
This excludes many foreigners from using these payment products easily.
1. Hyperinflation + Stagflation
Argentina faces one of the highest inflation rates globally, reaching 263.4% in July 2024. This hyperinflation severely weakens the local currency, driving up prices and creating economic instability.
How do we have to solve problems?
The unique economic situation in Argentina created significant pain points for foreigners, and this project became an exciting challenge for me as a designer to understand the unfamiliar fintech landscape and economic ecosystem of Latin America.
Throughout the project, I decided to focus on solving three key issues.
1. Exclusion of foreign users when accessing LATAM fintech services.
2. Delivering a frictionless KYC experience that both complies with legal regulations and supports the business model’s revenue goals.
3. Boosting accessibility to the product’s core features.
#1
The First challenge :
Exclusion of foreign users
Although there are already many crypto-fiat on/off ramp fintech products in the Latin American fintech ecosystem, many foreigners were excluded due to systems requiring a DNI (national ID).
Because of Argentina’s unique economic conditions, these existing solutions failed to ease the financial difficulties that foreigners face.
From a market-positioning perspective, our team has decided to target foreigners—especially digital nomads and expatriates without local ID numbers (DNI).
To address this barrier, The team has implemented a streamlined KYC process using passports, enabling a much broader base of foreign users to access the product.
#1
The first challenge :
Exclusion of foreign users
Although there are already many crypto-fiat on/off ramp fintech products in the Latin American fintech ecosystem, many foreigners were excluded due to systems requiring a DNI (national ID).
Because of Argentina’s unique economic conditions, these existing solutions failed to ease the financial difficulties that foreigners face.
From a market-positioning perspective, our team has decided to target foreigners—especially digital nomads and expatriates without local ID numbers (DNI).
To address this barrier, The team has implemented a streamlined KYC process using passports, enabling a much broader base of foreign users to access the product.
#2
The Second Challenge:
The complexity of KYC processes involving multiple conditions
A simplified KYC process allowed users to onboard without friction, but it came with the drawback of limiting the transaction volume to comply with legal regulations.
Since the product's business model relies on transaction-based fees, we needed a KYC system that could both meet regulatory requirements and support increased transaction volume.
To address this, our team proposed a modular KYC system that adjusts its requirements according to transaction volume, in contrast to many other fintech products that demand full KYC during onboarding.
Solution:
To address this, we proposed a UX that gradually guides users toward higher-tier KYC. On the main page and profile page, we introduced banners that provide nudges for completing additional KYC steps, using both confirmation and acknowledging actions to encourage progression.
So, how should we structure the system?
In designing this type of KYC approach, several potential issues that needed to be addressed.
Problem:
Sure, user experience is important—but doesn’t the business model ultimately rely on a high volume of transactions?
Since our business model was based on transaction fees, user transaction volume was indeed critical. However, we chose not to force users into high-tier KYC just for the sake of increasing transactions, prioritizing a better onboarding experience instead. At the same time, we had to account for our business goals.
Compliance Issue
To keep current minimized KYC process, will be there possibility of risks from legal compliance? How can we offer seamless onboarding experience to users while ensuring the compliance?
I contacted to local lawyers in Argentina to connect to teams to discuss potential compliance issues and to brainstorm with our team on how to ensure we meet legal compliance requirements , while reducing KYC user experience friction.
#2
The Third Challenge:
Improving the UX/UI to drive adoption while meeting business objectives
The goal was to improve the UX/UI to encourage product adoption while also considering the business objectives as a fintech product. When I joined, the product had originated from a hackathon, and many of its features had been implemented without sufficient UX/UI consideration.
To make more informed UX/UI proposals, I first realized the need to gain a deeper understanding of the product’s ecosystem.
To that end, I conducted exploratory interviews and user interviews to understand the context in which users were engaging with the product. I also performed desk research on the structure of other fintech products in Latin America.
Interviews with potential users
As a designer, I believed that I first needed to understand the ecosystem where users exist. It was crucial to gain an understanding of the unique situation in Latin America, the motivations and problems foreigners experience regarding international remittances, and how these issues could be addressed.
Additionally, in order for the product to grow into one that can accommodate users unfamiliar with crypto, I needed to get reference of the perspectives of potential users outside the current crypto-freindly user base.
#1
“ As Russian, I feel that we are boycotted every where. We can not use Paypal, visa card and Western unions…
When I change Ruble (Russian currency) to Argentine Peso, I had to transfer to Cambio which can accept Ruble. And then, I meet one cambio guy that I’ve never seen, in the middle of city to get bunch of the cash from him. ”
- Anna, Freelancer from Russia
“ First when I arrived here, I didn’t know where I have to get the cash, because ATM is so expensive. Fortunately, I have a local friend who introduced me his money exchange guy, well, I can trust him because of my friend.”
- James, Digital nomad from USA
“ We change money all the time in Western Unions, which is fine. But it’s little bit… tiring to visit to there and after that, you have to bring brick of money”
- Maxim, Digital nomad from Brazil
Research on actual users of the product
To understand how the users feel and use the product actually, our team organized the user research.
To conduct this research, I applied two methods. This research provided a clearer direction for setting product milestones.
VOC scrum through WhatsApp chat
The product had been handling Customer Service via WhatsApp for less than a year.
By conducting scrums with the VOC (Voice of Customer) data collected during this period, I was able to understand how the product had evolved overall.
Interviews with heavy users
I conducted interviews with "heavy users," defined as those whose total transaction amount exceeded a certain threshold.
The current users interviewed were familiar with crypto, even if they weren’t deep into it, and many worked in the crypto industry, earning income in crypto, which differed from potential users.
Handoff of User Research
Through this research, I created an affinity diagram to communicate with teams quickly.
The affinity diagram was divided into two directions:
- for the general pain points of foreigners in Argentina
- for product-related pain points.
We could find that the main pain point from the product is about the speed of service and getting right information for their transaction in the product.
This leads production direction to find right on/off ramp way while participating to on/off relating Hackathon to do research and testing.
Also during redesign, this delivering information issue was highly concerned for user interface and user flow.
This affinity diagram was shared with the team so they could empathize with the issues users were facing and refer to decide direction of sprint and milestones of product.
#2
Refining current IA and User flow
When I joined the team, the project, which sratred from hackathon project , wasn't started with a clear structure in mind. Various features were continuously added on, resulting in an Information Architecture (IA) that was not very user-friendly.
Core features more user-friendly.
The first thing I focused on was figuring out how to organize the IA and user flows in business goal in user-friendly way.
Although I don’t have DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) to use most of LATAM fintech products, thanks to coworkers and community, I could do research of UXUI flow of other LATAM fintech products.
Through my research, I discovered UX approaches that enable cryptocurrency to be seamlessly integrated into local currency-based fintech apps in a user-friendly way, which was quite intresting as foreigner.
Capturado - was one of good resouce to see various fintech products in LatamInformation Architecture Before/ After
To understand how to realize User flow and User interface, thanks to my team, I could also understand how’s the product really works in Back-end.
Redesign
User’s behavior pattern to design
User’s motivation and their behavior pattern
During user interviews, we discovered that people generally send money to specific individuals frequently.
To tranform this insight to more user-friendly UX, I designed the contacts section in transferring money process.
The first redesign focus was to ensure a smooth user experience for the core feature—remittance. One of the main issues with the previous UI was that the CTA (Call to Action) for this key function was not sufficiently emphasized. Additionally, since the product was shifting its focus toward bank transfers in its current operational strategy, it was necessary to update the UI accordingly.
To address this, we improved the UI by enhancing the accessibility of the core 'Pay' feature, making it more intuitive for users to engage with.
Nudges for business-critical actions.
The second focus of the redesign was UX design aligned with business goals. To activate users, the biggest barrier in the product was the deposit process—in other words, getting users to fund the in-app token balance was crucial.
With this in mind, I designed and proposed an activation funnel that naturally encourages deposits while allowing users to check the exchange rate.
Additionally, increasing transaction volume required expanding the user base. To support this, I suggested strengthening the referral system as a core feature. The 'Invitation' function was rebranded as 'Earn' to better highlight user incentives through UX writing.
Improvement for activation funnel
The key challenge in user activation was the deposit process, as it played a crucial role in enabling users to utilize tokens within the app.
To streamline this experience, I proposed the UX flow of an activation funnel that seamlessly integrates exchange rate checks, naturally encouraging users to make a deposit.
BI Concept
Considering the characteristics of nomads who frequently move around, we incorporated graphics commonly seen at airports as elements of our brand identity.
Lesson & Learn
Many Latin American countries, including Argentina, experience currency instability, leading to high cryptocurrency adoption. Wanting to work on projects where technology directly addresses real-world problems, I became interested in crypto payments.
During the project, I was able to use the app myself to send tuition payments to a local university for Spanish classes and pay my rent. I could even use QR payments just like locals—something that wasn’t possible with other apps. Building a product that enabled these real-life transactions was incredibly rewarding, and I wanted to make it even more useful, not just for myself but for other foreigners as well. To achieve this, I studied the technical, regulatory, and legal aspects of payment systems, learning how the Crypto-Fiat On/Off ramp process is designed and how it navigates compliance. Through this, I developed a deep interest in fintech as a product designer.
Considering that not all team members could fully commit to the project, I worked closely with the project manager to design solutions that minimized resource use while still achieving our development goals. This experience allowed me to refine my ability to create strategic, efficient designs in resource-constrained environments.
“ Domou also demonstrated remarkable collaboration skills. Clearly she is a self-motivated persona that has the power to motivate the team she works with. She rapidly integrated in the team and coordinated meetings with the Front End devs to facilitate the process of creating the new UI.”
-Andrés Chapo
CEO and Founder, WapuPay
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