Meet the Founders: John Pastre & Roman Varaksin – Solving international freelancer payments with Decent Hash

Full disclosure, building a fintech company was on my bucket list when I first met Roman Varaksin. But sometimes the best business ideas come from solving your own problems – and this time, Decent Hash came from solving my own problem, paying my freelancer, now my business partner. This is the story of why we built Decent Hash.

How It All Started

I found Roman on Freelancer a few years back after he left the other 3 developers I hired on the platform in the dust. He's one of those rare developers who can not only write clean code but actually understands what users want. Not only that, but he was willing to help me learn about what we were building, not just build it, so I knew pretty quickly we'd make a good team.

Our first collaboration was Ollacart – a universal shopping cart we built to help online shopping without the data entry headaches. Think of it as the pinterest for online shopping. We focused on simplicity and speed, letting shop owners save their products online quickly without getting lost in multiple checkouts. I designed the system, Roman ended up launching a chrome extension, iOS application, and web application.

Initially we started the project where I payed him in Milestones. I would take money from my personal account, transfer it into my business account, then send that money to OKCoin, now OKX, buy stablecoin, and send that to Roman. All in all, for each $600-$700 milestone it would cost about $80 to send the payment and almost two weeks.

The Unbeatable Chapter

After Ollacart, we pivoted the tech we built to Unbeatable Loans – a home-shopping tool for real estate investors and homebuyers . The idea is to help buyers cut out the real estate agent saving thousands and actually act faster than a real estate agent. I am especially proud of how well Roman built our impressive scraping algorithm that could pull data even from Zillow, a Fort Knox of a scraping target if you have ever tried it.

For Unbeatable Loans, Roman was on a salary which was paid on the 15th and 30th of each month. Of course, that was when I transferred the money, not when he received the money. He would end up waiting about 2 weeks for the money to be in his account, even though at this point we had set him up with a Wise account. It took me a week to see the money in MY wise account, and then between wise accounts it was instant, but then for him to move the money to his personal account it took another week.

The Payment Problem That Changed Everything

Here's where things get interesting – and frustrating. Throughout both Ollacart and Unbeatable, I was constantly dealing with payment headaches that were eating up way too much of my time and energy.

Picture this: I'd need to pay Roman for development work, pay for various SaaS tools and subscriptions, and handle other business expenses. But my money is of course scattered across different accounts, and moving it around was like navigating a maze of fees, delays, and complications.

Initially, to pay Roman, I was transferring money from my personal account to my business account, then trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to get payments to Roman. We started with crypto because it seemed like the obvious solution for fast, cheap transfers. But anyone who's tried to pay regular business expenses with crypto knows the reality – it's slow, complex for payees who aren't crypto-savvy (I was getting better, admittedly), and no vendors accept it, so it was useless except for a transfer function.

Then we switched to Wise, which was definitely better for international transfers and currency conversion. The fees were reasonable, and the interface was clean. Initially it was super fast, but then we faced delays especially for larger amounts that triggered additional verification steps.

The breaking point came when I realized I was spending several hours every other week just managing payments and transfers. I still have this time blocked off on my calendar. Time I should have been using to grow our business was getting consumed by payment logistics. That's when Roman and I figured out there has to be a better way.

Eventually, I set up a bank account on Relay that we both have access to, and I just let him take control of the transfers.

Decent Hash

Little did I know, Roman had started brainstorming what an ideal payment system would look like. Fast transfers, minimal fees, simple interface, and reliable processing – especially for international payments and remote team payouts.

The more we researched the space, the more we realized the limited existing solutions too expensive, or too slow. Traditional banks are stuck in the stone age with their processing times. Crypto is stuck in the acceptance stage. Most fintech apps are focused on consumer payments rather than freelancer needs. And existing crypto solutions, while fast, and cheap, aren't practical for everyday business operations.

That's how Decent Hash was born. We decided to build the payment platform we wished we'd had while running our previous companies. Now, I transfer USD, Roman receives USDC. I skip the wallet, he skips the US bank account.

What Makes Decent Hash Different

Our core insight was that other freelancers need the speed and efficiency of modern financial technology combined with the stability and reliability of traditional payment systems. We're not trying to reinvent money – we're just making it work better for freelancers.

The automatic conversion feature is our first breakthrough. We are starting to build more! For now, when employers/businesses/entrepreneurs transfer USD or MXN to your virtual account, it automatically becomes stablecoin through your virtual account for conversion. Decent Hash gives you the speed of crypto transfers with the stability of traditional currencies. Your employer doesn't need to maintain a crypto wallet or understand blockchain technology – they just send money like they always have.

We've built the platform around three core principles: instant payment processing, minimal fees, and maximum simplicity. Whether you're paying a freelancer in another country or handling recurring payroll for your remote team, Decent Hash processes transfers instantly, anywhere in the world.

The onboarding process follows our streamlined approach. You set up your profile in a few simple steps, complete a straightforward KYC verification process, and start sending money immediately. No complicated setup procedures or lengthy approval processes.

Solving Real Problems for Real Businesses + Entrepreneurs

What we're really solving is the fragmentation problem that nearly every growing business faces. Your money is in one place, your team is scattered globally, and moving funds between accounts, currencies, and countries is unnecessarily complicated and expensive.

Decent Hash acts as the bridge between traditional business banking and modern payment needs. We handle the complexity behind the scenes so you can focus on what actually matters – growing your business.

The recurring payments feature has been especially popular with companies managing remote teams. Instead of manually processing payroll across multiple countries and currencies, you can set up automated stablecoin transfers that happen reliably every pay period.

Our virtual accounts eliminate the need for businesses to maintain separate crypto wallets while still giving them access to the speed and efficiency of stablecoin transfers. It's the best of both worlds without the technical overhead.

Looking Forward

Building Decent Hash has taught us that sometimes the best business ideas come from your own frustrations. Roman and I went from struggling with payment logistics in our previous companies to creating a solution that solves those exact problems for other entrepreneurs and growing businesses.

We're not trying to disrupt the entire financial system – we're just making it work better for people who need to move money quickly, cheaply, and reliably. Whether you're a freelancer tired of waiting days for international payments or a business owner frustrated with expensive transfer fees, Decent Hash is designed to eliminate those pain points.

The journey from Ollacart to Unbeatable to Decent Hash has been about learning, iterating, and ultimately building something that solves real problems for real people. And honestly, that's exactly what entrepreneurship should be about.

Ready to streamline your business payments? Check out how we're making freelancer payments faster and see why growing businesses are switching to Decent Hash for their payment needs.