Hi HN! I built Bennu, a simplified DeFi gateway specifically designed for Latin America.

*The Problem*: DeFi is intimidating for most people in emerging markets. Complex interfaces, high minimum deposits, and lack of Spanish support create barriers to financial inclusion.

*The Solution*: Bennu makes DeFi as simple as online banking: • Deposit with card/bank transfer (from $10 USD) • Automatic 8% annual yield through battle-tested protocols (Morpho, Sushi, Vertex) • Spanish interface with 24/7 support • Built on Katana Network (faster, cheaper than Ethereum)

*Tech Stack*: Next.js 15, TypeScript, Firebase, Tailwind CSS, Bridge API for fiat on/off ramps

*Live Demo*: https://bennu.app (demo mode enabled - safe to explore!)

The demo shows the full user journey: onboarding → deposit simulation → yield tracking → portfolio management. All data is simulated for privacy.

*What makes it different*: • Mobile-first design (most LatAm users are mobile-only) • Banking-like UX (familiar patterns instead of DeFi complexity) • Localized for emerging markets • Educational content in Spanish • Low barriers to entry ($10 minimum vs $1000+ elsewhere)

Started as a personal wealth tracker, evolved into a DeFi gateway. The goal is to bring DeFi benefits to underserved markets where traditional banking often fails.

Built solo over 6 months. Planning to expand to other emerging markets if this resonates.

Would love feedback from the HN community - especially on UX, security considerations, and market fit!

A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber.

So, in a private ipfs network (connect to other peers who have a shared secret key) https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/experimenta.... All the IPFS nodes are connected by default? Each peer pin files from other peers?

No, if I understand correctly, he just bootstraps the nodes from each other, making sure they are initially strongly connected. I tried that too, but it didn't reliably help the problem.

Yep, precisely! And if I'm having peer discovery issues with just two nodes, I can't imagine what you guys are having to go through. :/

For the curious: you'd run `ipfs id` on the nodes to get their addresses. Then you'd run `ipfs config edit` on them and add the other node's address to the bootstrap section. https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/config.md#b...

But yeah... They'd still mysteriously not connect to each other at times.

Yep :( It's pretty disheartening to work on a product for some time and have the underlying technology just not work up to your standard.

Hearth is basically hit and miss for that reason, sometimes files show up right away and it's amazing, sometimes they time out and it's useless. Very frustrating, and there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.

I haven't looked at IPFS in depth but could this be because both the nodes are behind a nat and they need a relay node?

No, at least one wasn't. Plus, this happened even when they were directly connected.

Hi! My name is Alex Sicart and I have been working on a new way to send files using IPFS, so that everyone can benefit from this technology. With FileNation you can already send files in a more secure and efficient way using IPFS, a P2P hypermedia protocol. IPFS can save millions in bandwidth, right now FileNation pins files for free.

1 - Go to https://filenation.io/

2 - Click on Upload Files button. Locate the file that you want to upload and click open.

3 - Click on “Send Files to” and add the recpient email address.

4 - Click on “Your Email” and add your email address.

5 - Click on “Send”.

6 - The file will be added to IPFS and sent to the sender's email, keep page still open until Eternum has finished pinning :)

Try it out and tell me how I can improve it to empower more people with this amazing P2P technology :)

This is pretty cool, good job! I have a few questions:

* How long are you pinning files for?

* Is there a maximum size up to which you'll pin files?

Also, a tip: You can speed up your service by exposing the bridge on your pinning node. That way, your files don't have to go from node to node, the end user can just fetch them from your node's local pin store.

EDIT: Quickly skimming your code, it seems like you aren't uploading the files anywhere or pinning at all? Unless I'm mistaken, you're running ipfs-js and instantiating a node in the user's browser, which means that the user will have to keep the browser open for the file to be available, no?

I believe they're using Eternum's API to pin the content. I didn't look at the code, but the download link I got in the email is from https://eternum.io

Yes right now we are using Eternum API for the MVP to pin the content, but the next feature will be pinning in our server. Uploading the file to IPFS (front-end), then from the emai-server, downloading the file from hash to our own server and then connecting it to gateway https://filenation/ipfs/{hash} (everything in the same server to save a lot in bandwidth)

Ah yes, true. I missed that in the code, my TypeScript isn't great. Doesn't the page still have to stay open until Eternum has finished pinning, though?

Yes, it should take some minutes! I'll add this to new features. Thanks! :)

When I upload files do I have to assist in the P2P transfer of other files or is this supported by your servers? Is there any client side encryption planned ala Mega?

the server never goes down, because is not like TORRENTS!

fully distributed

this project is running an ipfs node in your browser

Also, is not like torrents, if disconnect your node, the file disappears!! Read IPFS docs please

> Also, is not like torrents, if disconnect your node, the file disappears

How is it not like torrents? If you're the only seeder and you turn off seeding, does the file not disappear?

> Read IPFS docs please

You're the one who should read them, if you think IPFS is not like torrents.

From the primary IPFS paper [1], which mentions "torrent" 26 times:

"In IPFS, data distribution happens by exchanging blocks with peers using a BitTorrent inspired protocol"

[1] https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs/tree/master/papers/ipfs-cap2pfs

Because this tech, need to be visible to HUMANS if we want to create the next internet.

I believe we should build distributed projects, seems equally to products already people love, but using great tech as ipfs, to have permanent and unlimited files.

Large, unlimited, and permanent files sounds great to the average person. One nitpick I have with the IPFS crowd is the use of the word 'permanent'. They know exactly what it means, but the connotation for the average person is incorrect (persistent data for the latter, permanent address for the former). The marketing problems run deep.