Authorization, preauthorization and 3DS
Separate authentication, consent, holds, capture and reversals for clearer checkout and subscription flows.
Cards & payments
Thoughts worth keeping
Make. Think. Write.
Questions about products and payment systems, with room for small tools, tea and everyday reflections.
22 items
Cards & payments
Why can a payment fail when there is enough money?
A subscription renewal is a useful way to explore card status, spending controls, available funds, concurrent holds and explainable authorization decisions.
Cards & payments
How virtual cards connect issuing and acquiring
Follow the cardholder, merchant, acquirer, network and issuer through authorization, capture, clearing and settlement.
Cards & payments
Designing double-entry: debits, credits and a reconcilable voucher
A practical design for account boundaries, balanced entries, multiple currencies, idempotency and reversals in a business ledger.
Cards & payments
A small exchange-rate difference, a surprisingly different payout
Separate quote direction, spreads, fees, expiry and refunds, then calculate the actual cost of a hypothetical conversion.
Cards & payments
Fraud, disputes and chargebacks: what is the difference?
Understand unauthorized payments, transaction complaints, evidence deadlines and the movement of disputed funds.
Digital assets & compliance
KYT funds checks: from risk labels to reviewable decisions
Connect address screening, monitoring, source-of-funds evidence and human review, with explicit handling for unknown results and serious alerts.
Chinese craft
Liling porcelain: from a ceramic school to everyday teaware
Meet Xiong Xiling, Wu Shouqi and Chen Yanglong, and explore the craft, history, documented uses and commissioning process.
Cards & payments
Why can local payments be faster than international wires?
Compare local clearing, prefunded liquidity, correspondent banks, cut-off times and the moment money actually arrives.
Cards & payments
Why a multicurrency account needs more than one total balance
Use dollars, euros and a CNY valuation to distinguish native balances, holds, available funds, conversion entries and reconciliation.
Digital assets & compliance
OTC on-ramps and off-ramps: from quote to final receipt
What fiat-to-asset and asset-to-fiat flows need, including same-name accounts, KYT, quote expiry and unknown outcomes.
Cards & payments
What do you need for cards, acquiring and transfers?
Prepare for onboarding with a practical checklist covering KYB, funding, website policies, transaction evidence and integration.
Cards & payments
How to route payments without charging twice
Build explainable, recoverable payment routing around eligibility, transaction state and idempotency.
Notes & reflections
A personal website should leave room to meet its owner
As the list of projects grows, the homepage needs more breathing room. Why I put an introduction first and give each interest somewhere to live.
Notes & reflections
Organizing this personal site, one question at a time
A project note on separating the homepage, brands, development, channels, journal and tools, and putting contact invitations where they help.
Cards & payments
Why is double-entry better suited to a business system than one-sided records?
Starting with a receipt, a fee and a settlement, this article explains what one-sided records miss and how double-entry connects funds, obligations and outcomes.
Notes & reflections
One small tool, one small problem
Repeated copying, hunting for links and formatting text are good starting points for deciding which tools deserve to be built and kept.
Digital assets & compliance
Choosing USDT or USDC: assets, networks and receipt conditions
A stablecoin integration checklist covering issuers, native and bridged assets, fees, confirmations and reconciliation.
Cards & payments
From a business event to double-entry posting: a flow and its prerequisites
A single flow for receipts, holds, settlement, refunds and unknown outcomes, with the prerequisites and observable results for a double-entry rollout.
Advertising & growth
What happens after the ad click?
Look at accounts, creative, landing pages and follow-up as one customer journey.
Products & development
Four things to clarify before building a website
A practical checklist for turning a business goal into a focused first release.
Cards & payments
Align the workflow before integrating a virtual card provider
Questions to clarify about card use cases, state synchronization and exception handling.