Ben Stokes (Tiny Projects 💡)

First post in 4 years I’ve been busy bootstrapping PromptBase to 450k+ users But I was burning $9,400/mo in opaque Stripe fees for seller payouts So today I’m launching Zoneless: an open-source clone of Stripe Connect using USDC Identical API, except payouts cost $0.002 I’ve been dogfooding it on PromptBase for 3 months: - 2,200+ sellers onboarded - 1,400+ payouts completed - $9.4k/mo in Stripe fees → ~$5/mo - 73% of sellers chose Zoneless over Stripe

Stripe increased their fees again. More reason to keep building. zoneless.com

POV: building an open-source Stripe

plot twist: this is not a tiny project 🇺🇸

Woke up to 100+ stars on the repo, thank you for the support! ⭐️ I've never built open-source before, so this is all pretty new Back to building now 🫡

@EnchantedRobot thanks Robert!

@tinyprojectsdev Welcome back, looks valuable, and great work!! 🎩🪽✨

First post in 4 years I’ve been busy bootstrapping PromptBase to 450k+ users But I was burning $9,400/mo in opaque Stripe fees for seller payouts So today I’m launching Zoneless: an open-source clone of Stripe Connect using USDC Identical API, except payouts cost $0.002 I’ve been dogfooding it on PromptBase for 3 months: - 2,200+ sellers onboarded - 1,400+ payouts completed - $9.4k/mo in Stripe fees → ~$5/mo - 73% of sellers chose Zoneless over Stripe

@tommyjmarshall 💙

@tinyprojectsdev I have no idea why I'm following you but I'm glad I am.

@therook_ @promptbase mainly through great timing with the AI boom, SEO, and a few reddit hacks.

Hi @tinyprojectsdev a question not related to this post, i am new here but conventional wisdom seems to be that you need to be present here and posting/replying to grow your SaaS, since you posted after years, how did you go about growing @promptbase i don't really enjoy x, since it's mostly ragebait, but i am not sure if other channels like paid ads work as well with high cpc's, what are your thoughts and experiences? can dm also if you'll like to reply privately, thanks in advance

@Kyriakos_Pelek 💙

@tinyprojectsdev this is huge, congrats on Zoneless

@theOmkarBirje yes, bit of a hiatus from posting!

@bdlowery It was a surprising result! We are an AI marketplace so probably a big crossover AI x crypto users, but the main incentive was that sellers can get their sale funds faster - which is a big motivator to push through & use it.

@tinyprojectsdev Pretty interesting tbh that SO many people choose this option, because I would never opt in to choosing USDC over depositing directly to my bank account.

@deifosv No, it operates entirely on Solana / USDC as a replacement for Stripe Connect payouts.

@tinyprojectsdev I would still need stripe for this?

@ryanseanbadger Thanks Ryan! PromptBase might be a bit skewed as AI x Crypto has some crossover, but we've definitely found that sellers have a big interest in using it and will push through if it means faster access to funds + payouts.

@tinyprojectsdev This is very cool, but I run a few marketplaces and nobody, ever, has shown the slightest interest in being paid in crypto. Likewise, none of their customers have wanted to pay in crypto either. This probably has huge value in certain niches though, and looks great 👌

@rich_low Good to be back, Rich!

@tinyprojectsdev Nice to see you back here!

@ybouane Thanks for the feedback Yassine, I 100% agree on the pay-in side its going to be a while before cards are not the #1 choice. Zoneless is just for the payout-side currently - you can definitely use it alongside Stripe! (we do this on PB)

The idea is good, but the reality is that Credit cards are still the defacto payment method people use. So replacing stripe for zoneless is unfeasible for most devs. It would be nice if instead of replacing stripe it would work on top of stripe. Keep the customer creation within stripe and find a way to attach the usdc payement system you’ve built on top of the stripe infra (stripe would manage everything except payment). Maybe by using ‘paid_out_of_band’… That way you can still see all subscriptions and payments in one place (stripe) while accepting usdc payments seamlessly.

@Dave_Geoghegan_ thanks David!

@tinyprojectsdev $9,400/mo in opaque stripe fees is a wild number. building open-source payouts to solve your own problem and then shipping it is the best kind of product development

@_ndianabasi thank you!

@tinyprojectsdev Good work, Ben. All the best.

@steventey thanks steven!

@tinyprojectsdev whoa this is dope, congrats on shipping!

@ZippyTyro Thanks!

@tinyprojectsdev Nice!

@ahogan Thank you Andrew!

@tinyprojectsdev This is awesome. Perfect use case for stablecoins. Nice work Ben!

Check it out here 👇 Website + docs: zoneless.com Github: github.com/zonelessdev/zo…