Product overview
What GrinGo Pay does
GrinGo Pay lets a UK or EU tourist pay for anything in Brazil — a taxi, a restaurant bill, a market stall — by scanning a PIX QR code with their phone. The tourist funds the app with a bank transfer in GBP or EUR from their normal bank. Behind the scenes that fiat is converted to USDC on Base, held non-custodially in their wallet, and streamed to the merchant's PIX key as BRL at the moment of payment.
Who it's for
- UK and EU travellers to Brazil who don't want to carry cash, get gouged on card FX fees, or install a Brazilian bank app.
- Digital-savvy but crypto-agnostic users — they never see a seed phrase, never see USDC, never sign a transaction manually. The wallet is a Privy embedded smart wallet with sponsored gas.
What the user experiences
- Sign up with email or Apple/Google. No password.
- Complete a one-time KYC (name, email, ID upload, hosted by Bridge).
- Get a UK sort code + account number (or an IBAN for EUR) to receive deposits from their own bank.
- Send £100–£500 from their bank. It arrives as a USD balance in the app.
- In Brazil: tap Pay PIX, scan a QR, confirm, done. Payment settles in seconds.
- Withdraw any remaining balance back to their bank at the end of the trip.
What GrinGo does not do
- No custody of USDC. The wallet is owned by the user (Privy embedded). GrinGo has no signing key, no operational treasury wallet, no ability to move funds without the user.
- No fiat handling. Bridge holds deposits, executes off-ramps, and pushes to PIX / FPS / SEPA.
- No KYC data storage. KYC is submitted directly to Bridge via a hosted link. GrinGo stores only the Bridge customer ID.
- No card issuance, no P2P transfers between users. Not in scope for the MVP.
Fee model
| Flow | Bridge fee | GrinGo fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deposit | 0.75% (on-ramp) | 0% | Bridge takes fee out of GBP→USDC conversion. |
| PIX pay | Included | ~2.0% (200 BPS) | GrinGo fee is set as developer_fee on the Bridge liquidation address. |
| Withdraw | 0.50% (off-ramp) | 0% | GBP/EUR return to user's own bank. |
Concretely: on a £500 PIX payment the GrinGo margin is roughly £6.25. See packages/shared/src/pix/pricing.ts for the pricing math (DEFAULT_GRINGO_SPREAD_BPS = 200).
What's next
See the roadmap for post-MVP work — Plaid on-ramp, additional fiat rails, in-app support.