In rural areas across Africa, access to smartphones, reliable internet, and complex apps remains a barrier to participating in digital finance. ElementPay USSD solves this by transforming ordinary phone numbers into simple Web3 wallets, making it possible for anyone to send, receive, and cash out crypto directly from a basic handset without internet access. Instead of struggling with long wallet addresses or unfamiliar apps, users interact with an intuitive USSD menu that feels just like mobile money, easing memory, adaptability, and trust. This accessibility doesn’t just simplify transactions , it empowers farmers, small traders, and everyday users in low-connectivity regions to seamlessly tap into global digital assets using the devices they already know, bridging the gap between Web3 and real-world financial inclusion.

Challenges I Ran Into

Building ElementPay USSD came with its own set of hurdles:

USSD + Blockchain Integration
One major challenge was connecting blockchain transactions to a USSD flow. Since USSD was designed for telecom services and not Web3, it was difficult to make the system speak both “telco language” and “blockchain language.”

Solution: We built a middleware layer that acts as a bridge, handling crypto transactions in the background while serving users through simple USSD prompts. This kept the user experience smooth while hiding the blockchain complexity.

Security Concerns
With users transacting on basic phones, there was a risk of exposing sensitive details. Traditional crypto wallets rely on seed phrases and apps, but that’s impossible in a USSD environment.

**Solution: **We introduced PIN-based authentication tied to phone numbers, essentially turning the phone number into a secure Web3 wallet address. This ensured safety while keeping the flow familiar, like mobile money.

Low Connectivity Environments
Many of our target users live in rural areas with unstable connectivity. Even minor network lags could break a transaction flow.
**Solution: **We optimized the USSD session design to minimize steps and built in transaction retries and confirmations to handle poor connections, ensuring reliability even in challenging environments.

Our current settlement contract on Base is:

ElementPay Settlement Contract: 0x168666355CE12973DB4B30a259b8ECdf7d84A301

We are in the process of revamping our architecture, and will be deploying an upgraded contract for liquidity routing and micropayment batching. This new contract will replace the current one once testing is complete, but the above address reflects the live logic currently powering ElementPay transactions.