From Chaos to Clarity: A Journey of Blockchain Payments
About a year ago, I set out to solve the problems of making blockchain payments usable in the real world.
The vision? To create a unified payment system for everyone. By everyone, I mean crypto and non-crypto users. It’s weird to even have this distinction, right? No user cares about the technology or underlying mechanism. They care about only two things:
What advantages does it offer over alternatives?
How simple it is for them to use?
Since I finished my studies and stepped into the real world, I’ve been fascinated by blockchain. It fits perfectly with my deep-rooted rebellious coder mind because of the freedom and control it gives. Everything works on proof, logic, and transparency. And I never looked back since then.
We all know Crypto is the money of the modern digital world. We’re all working towards making it happen.
The Mess We’ve Made
Initially, we started with the idea of preparing blockchain to handle world transactions and building blockchain applications. But doing so has brought a whole new problems that now we have so many chains and tokens, and the users are stuck figuring out how to move money between chains just to use basic applications. It’s frustrating, Sometimes, we even drop the thing we wanted to do.
On top of that, crypto has turned into a way to “make money out of money”. It’s less about usability and more about speculation. Finally, we’ve started to look for ways to spend fat crypto money in real world.
I remember the old days when we’d exchange cash for crypto with OTC traders, using serial numbers on banknotes. Then go with that same banknote to collect cash. Sure, rates were crazy, but who cares when you earn in crypto? Fast forward to today, and we’ve got crypto cards. They are convenient, but they charge huge fees- exchange fees plus traditional card processing fees. For me, this goes against everything blockchain stands for: freedom, control and cutting out the middleman.
Infrastructure Inversion
I remembered the first-ever blockchain talk I gave at a Conference. Infrastructure Inversion- I explained that the traditional systems and disrupting technologies often coexist for a while before new tech takes over. These crypto cards feel like we are in that phase. They are bridges between old and new systems. But they don’t capture the real ethos of blockchain.
That said, it’s not something we can avoid. We’ve created so much chaos trying to make blockchain usable that it feels like we’re still in the early days. At the same time, we’ve already solved major technical problems. Now, it’s just about wrapping it up and making it ready for regular users.
Because honestly, No one cares about whether something is centralised or decentralised, what chain it’s on, fee tokens etc. People just want to benefit from the real potential of blockchain
Buy and sell tokens
Earns APYs
Pay and accept payments without giving away a chunk of their money in fees.
Is it too much to offer? Not at all. Its basic.
The Lightbulb Moment
Over the past few months, we have been exploring how to shape a system that’s simple for everyone. And there was already a great example right in front of us: India’s UPI( Unified payment Interface)
UPI is a unified payment solution for inter-bank transactions. It powers multiple apps, each offering a seamless experience. Whether it’s p2p transfers or small business, a simple QR code or UPI-ID gets the job done in seconds- with no one needing to know how it works underneath.
Despite literacy and tech barriers, UPI works at scale.
It’s invisible, It’s reliable.
No tutorials. No setup rituals. No need to “understand” anything.
You don’t need to understand TCP/IP to send an email.
You don’t need to know which bank talks to which server.
You just pay.
Crypto doesn’t have that yet.
Today, using a DApp still means thinking like an engineer:
What chain am I on? What token? Did I approve it? Do I need to bridge?
We’ve made huge progress on infrastructure, but the experience is still full of technical decisions users have never asked for.
That’s the gap we need to close.
So, What’s Holding Us Back?
Blockchain is inherently global. Users already have full custody of assets and phrases/ Privates keys are already interoperable with wallets.
So why aren’t we there yet?
I know it sounds obvious, but it’s still the truth:
The ecosystem is fragmented. And not just in tech—but in experience.
We’ve made real progress with chain-abstraction protocols and account-abstracted wallets. But somehow, everything still feels… complicated.
Everywhere I look, people are solving clever technical problems. And app developers are expected to build around these complex, layered systems. When what they actually need is space to solve their core problems.
The infrastructure exists, but it’s hard to access.
The logic works- but the flow is broken
What’s missing is a system that brings together the power of blockchain with the simplicity users expect.
That’s what’s holding us back.
Why It Felt Worth Fixing
It wasn’t just about UX frustrations.
It was seeing something powerful—programmable, borderless money—get lost behind layers of technical complexity and broken flows.
It was the moment I realised, people don’t want to think in chains, bridges, or approvals. They just want to send value, get something done, and move on.
And if we can’t make that experience feel simple, then all the super cool tech we build in our own inner world won’t matter.
That gap felt too important to ignore.
The real bottleneck isn’t technology—but the absence of systems that meet people where they are.
Our Approach
At Cray, We’re building exactly that-
A unified layer(not a new chain) that sits between the app and users.
One integration that lets the app accept stablecoins from any chain. Users don’t have to bridge. Don’t have to switch networks.
They just pay- and it works.
We’re here to make blockchain usable. To take the raw power of crypto and wrap it in a flow that feels natural, effortless, and invisible.
If the internet needed a browser to go mainstream, Crypto needs something that makes payments feel natural.
That is the future we are building.