Who Decides What You Can Buy and Sell Online? The PayFi Manifesto

by PayFi · 5 October 2026 · Manifesto

Today, whether you can get paid online is often decided by companies several steps away from you: payment processors, card networks, banks. Most of the time you never notice. When you do, it is usually because a door just closed. PayFi is built on a different belief: adults who trade with each other, within the law, should not need anyone's permission to be paid. Here is what that belief means, what it does not mean, and how it shows up in the way the tool works.

The door you did not know was there

Most people never think about who decides whether they can be paid. They sell something, the buyer pays, the money arrives. The decision happens somewhere out of sight, and it usually says yes.

Then one day it says no.

A seller in a country that card processors do not serve finds that the sign-up form has no option for where she lives. A designer's payment account is closed, with a short email and no clear reason, and her balance is held for months. A whole group of creators wakes up to news that their platform will ban their work, not because of a law, but because of pressure from the banks and payment companies behind it.

These are not rare edge cases. They are what happens when the right to be paid depends on permission from companies you never chose and cannot talk to.

A payment tool is never neutral. Every one of them is built on beliefs about who should decide what. Most never write those beliefs down. This essay does. It sets out six beliefs behind PayFi, from the reader's side: what each means for a seller or buyer, how the tool is built around it, and where its limits are.

Three people, one problem

To keep this concrete, it helps to picture three sellers. None of them is a real person, but each of their situations is common.

Amaka lives in Lagos and sells sewing patterns as PDF files. Her buyers are in the United Kingdom and the United States. When she tries to sign up for a well-known card processor, her country is not on the list. She is not refused for anything she did. She simply is not offered the service.

June is a graphic designer in Manila who sells templates. Her payment account is closed after a sudden spike in sales from a popular post. The email says the account "presents a risk", and her balance will be held while the company reviews it. She does not know for how long.

Kai makes adult-themed illustrations that are legal where he lives. He has watched platforms he relied on change their rules several times, each time after pressure from payment partners he never deals with directly.

Each of them is an adult doing lawful work. Each of them is stuck because someone in the middle can say no. The beliefs below are, in a sense, answers to their three situations.

An old freedom, new tools

None of this is a new idea about money. It is a very old one.

For most of history, and still today in most of the world, the ordinary way to pay is cash. Cash needs no account, no approval and no review of what you are buying. Two adults agree on a price, one hands over notes, the other hands over goods, and the deal is done. Nobody in the middle decides whether it may happen, and nobody can reverse it next month.

Online trade lost that. To pay someone on the other side of the world, you need a card network, a processor and two banks, and each of them gets a say. Many good things came with those systems, including convenience and buyer protection. But the simple freedom of handing money to someone who has earned it was left behind.

Digital dollars on a public blockchain bring some of that freedom back, with one important difference: unlike cash, every payment leaves a record anyone can check. PayFi's beliefs are, in a sense, an attempt to keep the directness of cash while adding the openness that cash never had.

Why a payment tool should state its beliefs

You would not hand your savings to someone without knowing how they think about money. Yet most people use payment services without knowing what those services believe about them: whether they are treated as adults or as risks, as owners of their money or as holders of a balance that can be frozen.

Writing beliefs down does two things. It lets you decide whether a tool fits your values before you depend on it. And it gives you something to hold the tool to. If PayFi ever acts against what is written here, you will be able to point to it.

The six beliefs are short, and none of them is original. They echo ideas about money and freedom that are decades or centuries old. What matters here is what each one changes in practice, for a seller in Lagos or a buyer in Manchester, on an ordinary day.

1. Your money is your money

What it means. Money you earn from selling your work belongs to you from the moment the buyer pays. It is not a balance someone else keeps for you, decides when to release, or can hold while they review your account.

Why it matters. With many payment services, your money spends time in someone else's hands, and their rules decide when you get it. PayPal's user agreement says that if your account is closed, PayPal may hold your funds for up to 180 days if it reasonably needs to protect against the risk of liability, or if you have broken its agreement or acceptable use policy (PayPal User Agreement, via ConductAtlas). Stripe describes reserves as "a temporary hold on a portion of a business's funds for a predetermined period of time", and says it may increase or extend them (Stripe Support). These policies have reasons, but they mean that, for a time, your money is not really yours.

How PayFi is built around it. Each payment goes to an address made only for that order. Within about 20 seconds, it is split in one transaction: 99 percent to your own wallet, 1 percent to PayFi. There is no balance, no payout schedule and no account to freeze. Once the split is done, PayFi has nothing of yours to hold.

In practice. For June, this would have meant that her sudden spike in sales was simply a good day. Each sale would have gone to her wallet within seconds of the buyer paying. There would have been no balance to hold and no review to wait for, because there would have been nothing sitting with anyone else.

What it does not mean. It does not mean nobody can ever touch digital dollars. The companies that issue USDT and USDC can freeze specific addresses. And it means you, not a company, are responsible for keeping your wallet safe.

2. You are not a child who needs supervising

What it means. Adults can decide what to sell, what to buy and whom to trade with, without asking a company to approve each choice in advance.

Why it matters. Before you can be paid by most services, you go through a kind of supervision: forms, ID checks, reviews of what you sell and why. Stripe publishes lists of prohibited and restricted businesses, and explains that, as a financial services company, it has to follow financial laws and the rules and policies of its financial partners, such as card networks and banks (Stripe). Some of those categories are plainly illegal. Others are legal but considered risky by the partners.

When those partners change their minds, lawful sellers can lose their income overnight. In August 2021, the creator platform OnlyFans announced a ban on sexually explicit content; its founder said banks and payment providers had forced the decision. Less than a week later, on August 25, it reversed course after saying it had secured the assurances it needed (Euronews). For a few days, a large number of creators faced losing their living because of decisions made several steps away from them.

How PayFi is built around it. You do not apply to use PayFi. There is no account to open, no ID to upload and no review queue. You enter a wallet address, a product name, a price and a delivery link, and you have a payment link.

In practice. Kai's illustrations do not need anyone's sign-off before he can sell them. He creates a link, posts it where his buyers already follow him, and is paid. Whether his work is legal is a question for the law where he lives, not for a payment partner's latest policy.

What it does not mean. It does not mean anything goes. The law where you live still applies to what you sell, and PayFi's terms make sellers fully responsible for their products and links. Not being supervised is not the same as not being accountable.

3. Economic freedom matters to every other freedom

What it means. Being able to earn, spend and keep money on your own terms is not a minor convenience. It is part of what lets people live independent lives.

Why it matters. This is an old idea, not PayFi's invention. The economist Milton Friedman argued in Capitalism and Freedom, first published in 1962, that competitive capitalism is both a means of economic freedom and "a necessary condition for political freedom" (University of Chicago Press). Whatever one thinks of his wider views, the everyday version is easy to see. A person who cannot be paid cannot easily support themselves, start something of their own or leave a bad situation.

And many people cannot be paid. The World Bank's Global Findex survey estimates that about 1.3 billion adults have no account at a bank or mobile money provider, while 86 percent of adults worldwide have a mobile phone (World Bank). Another World Bank estimate puts the number of people without an official ID at about 850 million (World Bank). For them, "just sign up for a payment account" is not an option.

How PayFi is built around it. Anyone with a Solana wallet can receive USDT or USDC through a payment link, in any country. A phone is enough. There is no list of supported countries, because there is no sign-up form to put one on.

In practice. Amaka creates a payment link from her phone in Lagos. A buyer in Manchester pays in USDC. Her share is in her wallet seconds after the payment lands. Nobody asked which country she lives in, because nothing in the process depends on it.

What it does not mean. It does not remove every barrier. Buyers still need digital dollars, and buying them the first time usually means an exchange or card service that checks ID and charges a fee. Sellers who want local currency still go through an exchange. Freedom to be paid is a real step, not the whole road.

4. No moral policing of lawful trade

What it means. A payment tool should not decide which legal products are acceptable to sell. That is a judgement for the law, and for buyers and sellers, not for the company in the middle.

Why it matters. Philosophers have long argued that people own themselves and the fruits of their work. Robert Nozick's 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia is commonly read as resting on exactly that idea of self-ownership (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). You do not need to accept his whole argument to see the practical point: when a payment company refuses lawful work because it finds it distasteful or reputationally inconvenient, it is not enforcing a law. It is enforcing its own taste, or its partners', on people who never agreed to it.

How PayFi is built around it. PayFi does not review what sellers sell before they sell it. According to its own description, the contents of each payment link are encrypted inside the link, and PayFi keeps only the minimal records needed to deliver products and settle payments, with no names or emails. There is no category list to check against and no moderation queue.

In practice. A seller of a lawful but unfashionable product, say, a guide to a controversial hobby, does not have to wonder whether this month's policy update will cut them off. The tool does not change its mind about them, because it never made up its mind in the first place.

What it does not mean. It does not mean illegal products are welcome. PayFi's terms say creators must make sure everything they sell complies with applicable law, and that they carry full legal responsibility for it. The line PayFi refuses to draw is the one between lawful products some people dislike and lawful products they approve of. The line between legal and illegal is drawn by the law, and it still applies.

5. Let people choose

What it means. Buyers and sellers who agree on a trade should be able to make it directly, without a third party standing between them deciding whether the deal can happen or be undone later.

Why it matters. In card payments, a third party can reverse a completed sale months later. For buyers, that is a real protection, and many value it. For sellers of digital products, it can be a risk with no defence: a file cannot be taken back once downloaded, but the payment can be. Stripe, for example, charges 15 dollars for each dispute a seller receives (Stripe).

How PayFi is built around it. A completed payment is final. The buyer sees the price and the product before paying, and the product unlocks as soon as the full payment arrives. For payments that did not become a completed order, such as overpayments, underpayments that are cancelled or payments that arrive late, the rules are published in advance: the buyer can get the money back from their private order link, minus a small fee, without anyone having to approve it.

What it does not mean. It does not mean buyers have no protection at all. They have clear refund rules for mistakes, a receipt they can check, and a public record of every payment. What they do not have is a way to undo a completed purchase through a third party. Buyers who want that protection should pay by card. That is a real choice, and it should be made knowingly.

In practice. A buyer who sends a little too much because of an exchange fee does not need to email anyone. They open their order link, paste their wallet address and get the extra back, minus a small fee, usually within seconds. A buyer who received the product and simply changed their mind talks to the seller, as they would in any shop where the sale is final.

6. You know the risk

What it means. Adults can look at a deal, check the details, weigh the risk and decide for themselves. A payment tool should give them what they need to do that, not decide on their behalf.

Why it matters. Many services protect people by limiting them: holding payments, blocking countries, refusing categories. Some of that protection is welcome. But it also treats every user as someone who cannot be trusted with their own choices, and it gives the protector a great deal of power over people's money.

How PayFi is built around it. Instead of limits, PayFi gives information. The fee is fixed at 1 percent and written down. The refund rules, fees and waiting periods are shown on the checkout page before anyone pays. Every payment is a public Solana transaction anyone can look up. Every payment is also written into a public ledger at payfi.cx/ledger, sealed into Bitcoin so that past lines cannot be changed. If the money rules ever change, the change is recorded there with its date.

What it does not mean. It does not mean risk disappears. Payments are final. Stablecoins depend on the companies that issue them. A seller can be dishonest, and a buyer can make a mistake. "You know the risk" is a statement of respect, not a guarantee of safety. It asks something of you in return.

In practice. A buyer unsure about a new seller can buy one cheap item first, check the receipt's transaction on Solscan, and decide from there. A seller unsure about PayFi can sell one product to a friend and watch the split happen. Nobody has to take anyone's word for anything.

A manifesto for buyers too

It is easy to read all of this as being about sellers. But each belief also protects buyers, sometimes in quieter ways.

Buyers keep their privacy. PayFi does not ask buyers for a name, an email, an address or a card number. A buyer can pay for a product without leaving a trail of personal details in yet another database.

Buyers can choose sellers anywhere. If the seller you want to support lives in a country card systems ignore, a payment link still works. You are not limited to sellers a processor has approved.

Buyers get rules, not favours. If you pay too much, too little or too late, you do not have to write to support and hope. The refund rules are on the page before you pay, and you can use them yourself from your private order link.

Buyers can check everything. Your receipt carries a transaction code you can look up on a public explorer. Your payment is a line in a public book that cannot be quietly changed.

What buyers give up is the ability to reverse a completed purchase through a third party. That is a real loss for some purchases, and the section on objections below takes it seriously.

How these beliefs shaped the tool

Beliefs only matter if they change what gets built. These six explain most of PayFi's design choices, including the things it deliberately leaves out.

Because your money is your money, PayFi does not keep balances, and splits each payment within seconds.

Because adults do not need supervising, there are no accounts, no identity checks and no approval queue.

Because economic freedom matters, there is no list of supported countries.

Because lawful trade should not be morally policed, there is no category list and no review of what people sell.

Because people should be able to choose, payments are final, and mistakes are handled by published rules rather than by a third party's judgement.

Because adults can weigh risk, everything is shown rather than hidden: the fee, the rules, every payment on Solana, and every line of a public ledger sealed into Bitcoin.

Each of these choices has a cost, and earlier essays in this series set out those costs one by one. Seen together, they are not a random list of missing features. They are what these beliefs look like when they are turned into software.

The fair objections

A manifesto that only lists its own virtues is advertising. There are serious arguments against the beliefs above, and they deserve an honest hearing.

"Fewer checks means more fraud." Fraud is real and large. The US Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost more than 12.5 billion dollars to fraud in 2024, and that losses from scams paid by bank transfer or cryptocurrency exceeded all other payment methods combined (FTC). Final payments and no identity checks can make some scams easier. The honest answer is not that this risk is imaginary. It is that PayFi places protection elsewhere: in public records anyone can check, in refunds for mistakes that need no one's approval, and in asking buyers to deal with sellers they have reason to trust.

"Identity checks exist to stop money laundering." They do, and laws require them of companies that hold and exchange money. PayFi does not hold balances, and identity checks still happen where regular money enters and leaves the system, at exchanges. Whether that is enough is a fair question that reasonable people answer differently.

"Chargebacks protect ordinary buyers." They do. For many purchases, especially physical goods from unknown shops, the ability to dispute a card payment is worth what it costs. PayFi does not claim otherwise. It is a different tool, for situations where final payment and direct trade suit both sides better.

"Some products should not be sold, legal or not." People disagree deeply about this, and the disagreement is legitimate. PayFi's position is narrow: it is not the job of a payment tool to settle those disagreements for everyone. That is what laws, and individual choices, are for.

None of these objections is foolish. Each one points to a real cost of the freedom described here. The choice PayFi makes is to accept those costs openly, rather than to remove the freedom.

What this asks of you

A tool that treats you as a capable adult also asks you to act like one. That is the other side of each belief.

Keep your own money safe. Your wallet and its recovery phrase are yours to protect. Nobody can reset them for you.

Check before you pay. Buy from sellers you have reason to trust. Read what you are paying for. Use the receipt and the public record when you need them.

Follow the law where you live. Not being supervised does not change your legal obligations. Income is still income, and taxes still apply.

Treat the other side fairly. Freedom from a referee works only when both players play fair. Sellers should describe products honestly and deliver what they promise. Buyers should pay what they agreed and read before they send. A system without a middleman relies on the people at both ends more than any other.

Choose the right tool for the job. If you need card protection, subscriptions or formal invoices, use tools that offer them. PayFi is for direct, one-time payments between people who accept that they are final.

Why write it down

Beliefs are easy to state and easy to drop. The reason to write these down, in public, is so that they can be checked against what PayFi actually does.

Some of that checking is built in. You can see that payments are split to sellers' wallets, because every split is on Solana. You can see that the fee is 1 percent, because every payment line in the public ledger shows it. You can see when the rules change, because changes are written into the ledger with their date. You can see that past lines have not been altered, because the ledger is sealed into Bitcoin.

This is a different kind of promise from the ones most companies make. A promise in a terms-of-service page can be changed with an email you never read. A promise backed by public records can be tested by anyone, at any time, without asking permission. The point is not that PayFi is more trustworthy than other companies. The point is that you should not have to find out by trusting.

The rest is up to readers. If PayFi ever starts holding balances, reviewing what people sell, or asking for identities it says it does not need, this essay will be here to compare against.

Your business, your choices

Let's return to the people at the start: the seller whose country is missing from the sign-up form, the designer whose account was closed, the creators whose income depended on someone else's partners.

None of them did anything wrong in the eyes of the law. What they lacked was permission from companies they had never chosen. The old belief says that this is simply how getting paid works: someone in the middle decides, and you accept it.

The belief behind PayFi is different. It says your money is yours from the moment you are paid, that adults can choose what to buy and sell within the law, that a payment tool should give you information rather than supervision, and that its own behaviour should be open to anyone's inspection.

That belief comes with responsibilities, and with real trade-offs, set out above. But it starts from respect. You are not a risk to be managed. You are a person doing business.

Amaka sells her patterns to buyers in three countries without ever being asked where she lives. June's busy days are just busy days. Kai posts his link and gets on with his work. None of them is free of the law, of taxes, or of the need to treat their buyers well. They are free of something narrower: the need to ask someone in the middle for permission to be paid.

Your business, your choices. The law and your taxes still apply. Nobody else's permission is needed.

Sources

• PayPal User Agreement (fund holds), via ConductAtlas: conductatlas.com; original: paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full
• Stripe Support, "Reserves FAQ": support.stripe.com
• Stripe, "Prohibited and restricted businesses": stripe.com
• Euronews, OnlyFans reverses ban (August 25, 2021): euronews.com
• University of Chicago Press, Milton Friedman, "Capitalism and Freedom": press.uchicago.edu
• World Bank, "Digital technology is unlocking financial inclusion" (Global Findex 2025): blogs.worldbank.org
• World Bank, "850 million people globally don't have ID": blogs.worldbank.org
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Robert Nozick's Political Philosophy" (notes): plato.stanford.edu
• Stripe, "Pricing": stripe.com/pricing
• Federal Trade Commission, consumer fraud losses in 2024: ftc.gov
• PayFi checkout page, terms and public ledger: payfi.cx, payfi.cx/ledger