Rain
Building a highly regulated international cryptocurrency exchange
Challenge
Recover from failed engagement, build cryptocompliant product, attract talent
Outcome
Product rebuild, validation, process implementation, CRA license acquisition
Image of the Rain homepage
Who is Rain?
Rain is the most regulated and secure cryptocurrency exchange in West Asia.
Their mission is to provide an exchange that is internationally respected for its dedication to security, compliance, fair pricing, and user experience. Rain believes in the ability of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency to change the world for the better. Their team is dedicated to providing the tools and structure to do so in West Asia.
“The best part was that we got to work closely with very talented developers and great communicators at thoughtbot. They had a good process in place. Everything was tested. They were very methodical about setting us up with the best structure for the app.
Co-Founder & CEO, Rain
Challenge
In order to meet sandbox requirements and acquire CRA licensure, the CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain) required Rain to present a product that already successfully served a small population of customers.
With that in mind, they set out to develop their product in Ruby on Rails to quickly meet compliance regulations, as well as attract talent. After a failed engagement with another firm, Rain wanted to work with Ruby on Rails experts with a long track record of launching successful products.
The team at Rain had been in contact with thoughtbot on and off since the initial conception of their product. Rain's founders were impressed with thoughtbot’s design expertise and “Silicon Valley standard” process for product development. When it came to meeting their standards and providing Ruby on Rails expertise, Rain knew thoughtbot was the best option available.
Solution
Initially, Rain had existing Go services that were exposed as a REST API and a handful of server-rendered HTML pages.
The team at thoughtbot developed a Rails app to replace the Go rendered pages, which let Rain build out their user interface more quickly. Instead of using a database, this Rails app consumed the Go API and also provided Rain with localization programming necessary to meet language, cultural, and legal requirements dependent on their audiences specific locale.
The team at Rain then began user research and testing. The first 50 customer reactions were recorded and analyzed, leading to nearly 1,000 action items. Using this information, Rain was able to efficiently validate their product and iterate to meet client needs.
After 3 months of collaboration with thoughtbot, Rain developed a research-validated, user- tested, peer-reviewed product that was ready to begin serving their client base.
Image of the Interface of the Rain Mobile application
Outcome
Rain overcame setbacks in their process that would have stifled many teams.
Thanks to the relentless vision of their talented founders, they were able to pull through a failed partnership and flourish with support from product experts at thoughtbot. Moving quickly and efficiently, thoughtbot's team provided Rain with product development expertise, a process-driven approach, and collaborative structure to set the groundwork for them to serve their customers and continue iterating over time.
In July 2019 Rain acquired their Crypto-Asset Module (CRA) license from the Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and officially went live.
“A lot of people eventually end up tossing out whatever they build with firms. But with thoughtbot, we really built a foundation that we’ll be using for a long time to come.
Co-Founder & CEO, Rain