Banking & Payment Infrastructure
Your bank account works. Your Stripe dashboard shows revenue. Everything looks fine — until it doesn't. Non-resident banking relationships, payment processor dependencies, and platform risk are structural fragilities that don't surface until they break. This guide covers how freezes happen, why compliance doesn't equal safety, and what single-rail dependency really means.
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Mercury vs Wise vs Relay: Best Bank for Cross-Border Solo Founders (2026)
A structural comparison of Mercury, Wise Business, and Relay for cross-border founders. Features, fees, account opening requirements, and the compliance implications your bank choice creates.
Stripe vs Paddle vs Lemon Squeezy: Payment Processing for Solo Founders (2026)
Direct processing vs Merchant of Record: a structural comparison of Stripe, Paddle, and Lemon Squeezy. Fees, tax compliance, and what each model means for your cross-border structure.
How Payment Freezes Actually Work
A payment freeze doesn't just pause revenue — it compresses your response timeline to hours while recovery takes weeks. Here's the anatomy of what happens and why.
The Compliance Paradox: Why Compliant Accounts Still Get Frozen
Compliance means following the rules. It doesn't mean the processor sees it that way. The gap between being compliant and being safe is structural.
Payment Rails Are Not Infrastructure: What Platform-Dependent Founders Miss
Your Stripe dashboard shows revenue flowing. But between that revenue and your bank account sits a structure most founders have never mapped — and it can break without warning.
Non-Resident Banking: Structural Fragility You Can't See from the Dashboard
Operating a business bank account in a jurisdiction where you're not a resident creates structural patterns that feel stable — until they're examined.
The Banking Stability Illusion
Your bank account works. Money flows in and out. Nothing has been flagged. But banking stability and banking structure are different conditions — and the difference surfaces without warning.
Indie Hackers: Your Stripe Dashboard Is Not a Financial Structure
Revenue is growing, the SaaS is shipping, and the Stripe dashboard looks great. But the absence of structure is itself a structural condition — one that compounds quietly.
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