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benashfordtoday at 12:01 PM2 repliesview on HN

I think most of this applies to software engineering generally, not just fintech.

For example the parts talking of retries, idempotency, event ordering, etc. This applies to all systems that require any degree of accuracy, even if no money is directly involved. I've seen so many systems built on the assumption that "we can always retry", but you can only retry if you fail cleanly in the first place, and if the downstream system offers the same level of idempotency that you think it does. Quite often these are not put to the test.


Replies

jappgartoday at 1:54 PM

I agree. Very little in here specifically applies to fintech except the ledgering and rounding parts, which are pretty light.

I would prefer to read a defense of something more radical like "database per account." Something that has unique tradeoffs within fintech.

Also, the main advice I would give to fintech engineers/founders is to take risk and compliance seriously from day one.

Financial systems are based around trust. If you don't provably mitigate risks you will lose trust and, eventually, your entire business.

jimmypktoday at 12:50 PM

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