asgayapedia

Constraints: The Design Trade-offs

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Overview

After identifying requirements, we faced design constraints - trade-offs where no perfect solution exists:

  1. Economic: Payment-first model is “inefficient” but enables compliance
  2. Technical: 7% buffer balances risk coverage with money velocity
  3. Social: Cash Accounts provide identity without intermediaries
  4. Scaling: Automation vs control (passive mode)
  5. Trust: Reputation on-chain vs central database
  6. Expansion: Speed vs safety (progressive payment rollout)

Key Constraints

1. Asgaya Remittances: Inefficient by Design

Trade-off: Capital efficiency vs compliance
Decision: Payment-first + two-step settlement (recipient + merchant co-sign)
Why: Even when “inefficient,” BCH remittances beat banks on cost and speed

2. The 7% Volatility Buffer: Money Velocity Enabler

Trade-off: Capital efficiency vs risk coverage
Decision: 7% buffer achieves 99.45% success (RS062), enables 3 daily cycles
Why: €5K capital moves €450K monthly through fast recycling (90x leverage)

3. Cash Accounts: Permissionless Identity Layer

Trade-off: Identity vs privacy, usability vs anonymity
Decision: On-chain names (Elena#142) for bank concept field compatibility
Why: Blends in on bank statements, no central registry, human-readable

4. Passive Mode: Bot Automation (Not Manual Trading)

Trade-off: Control vs scaling
Decision: Sellers post once, bot handles trades 24/7
Why: Linear time investment doesn’t scale; €6/hour manual vs €50/hour with bot

5. Reputation On-Chain (Not Central Database)

Trade-off: Privacy vs trust, cost vs discoverability
Decision: Minimal stats on-chain (mode, payment methods, location, fee, capacity), details on Nostr
Why: Pre-filtering eliminates messaging spam; ~€0.0002 per update (bundled with covenant funding)

6. Progressive Payment Rollout: Safety Over Speed

Trade-off: Speed vs safety, breadth vs depth
Decision: Start cash-in-person + Bizum (documented), add methods progressively via pioneer volunteers
Why: Payment infrastructure varies wildly; crowdsourced documentation scales better than dev-led; trust requires reliability

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Related: Requirements

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