Crypto Payments Super-App Backend (Microservices, AdonisJS/Node)
A crypto payments super-app
Overview
The backend platform for a crypto payments super-app, structured as a set of Node/TypeScript microservices behind an API gateway. It is fully containerized, deployed to Kubernetes, and integrates payments tooling, caching and a PostgreSQL data layer.
The Challenge
A consumer super-app handling crypto and fiat payments needs a secure, scalable backend that cleanly separates concerns (gateway, user management, shared logic), supports multiple environments, and can be operated reliably with CI quality gates.
What We Built
A multi-service monorepo under services/ containing api-gateway, user-manager, and a common shared layer, with supporting infra/ and kubernetes/ manifests, a root Dockerfile and compose.yaml, an env-to-secret.sh helper for secret injection, and PM2 process management. Data access uses Sequelize with a dedicated migration config (sequelize-migration.config.js) against PostgreSQL. Caching is handled via BentoCache, payments tooling via the Stripe CLI, and code quality is enforced through MegaLinter with reports committed. Runtime logs (api_gateway.log, user_manager.log) reflect the gateway + user-manager split in operation.
Technologies & Approach
TypeScript/Node microservices for clear service boundaries; Sequelize + PostgreSQL for relational data and versioned migrations; Docker/Compose for local parity and Kubernetes for production orchestration; BentoCache for performance; MegaLinter and Husky for consistent quality across a long-lived (2023–2025) codebase.
Outcome / Impact
Served as the long-running production backend for the super-app over roughly two years of active development, providing the gateway, user management and shared services that power the mobile client and merchant integrations.
Capabilities Demonstrated
- Designing and operating Node/TypeScript microservice backends
- Containerization and Kubernetes deployment with secret management
- Relational data modeling and migrations (Sequelize + PostgreSQL)
- Fintech/payments backend engineering with CI quality gates