01 · Fintech · Co-founder
Kwama
A payments platform built on Base L2 using USDC and ZARP, designed so that recipients keep custody of their money and senders keep their transaction history private.
Stablecoin-based cross-border remittance for the South Africa–Zimbabwe corridor
The problem
The South Africa–Zimbabwe remittance corridor is one of the most heavily used and most expensive in the region. Fees, spreads and settlement delays compound on people sending small amounts frequently, and the informal alternatives trade cost for risk.
What I designed
I designed the dual-custody wallet architecture that lets Kwama meet users where their comfort with self-custody actually sits:
- GuardianWallet — an ERC-4337 smart account with shared custody, so a recipient who loses a device is not locked out of their funds, without Kwama ever unilaterally controlling them.
- SelfWallet — fully non-custodial, with keys derived from WebAuthn passkeys via Privy, so the signing material never leaves the user's device secure element.
On top of that I integrated Railgun to provide zero-knowledge transaction privacy, so that a public ledger does not become a public record of every household's income.
Regulatory work
Payments infrastructure is a licensing problem as much as an engineering one. Kwama is navigating FSCA requirements in South Africa and VASP licensing in Zimbabwe, and the architecture above was chosen partly because it is defensible to a regulator: custody boundaries are explicit, and privacy is implemented without abandoning compliance controls.
Status
Incubated at UCT's GenesisBloc Financial Innovation Hub and in active development, co-founded with Sebastian Buxman.