Systemic Qualities
Systemic Qualities
Overview
Buburuza operates as a licensed digital platform offering integrated finance, wallet services (fiat and cryptocurrency), and blockchain infrastructure. This documentation outlines the systemic qualities implemented across our regulated financial and blockchain platform.
Platform Scope
Buburuza Bank: Core banking services with full regulatory compliance
Buburuza Wallet: Multi-asset wallet supporting both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies with institutional-grade custody
Blockchain Infrastructure: Arbitrum-based Layer 3 settlement infrastructure with dedicated nodes, indexers, and RPC services
Our architecture ensures financial-grade availability and operational resilience across all services. The system is designed with clear separation between core banking systems, wallet payments, and blockchain settlement layers to contain blast radius and meet stringent regulatory requirements for customer fund safety.
Key Achievements
99.99% availability SLA with zero tolerance for custody-related failures
High-throughput wallet infrastructure supporting 10,000+ TPS with financial abuse prevention
RPO of 15 minutes and RTO of 1 hour with separate recovery paths for fiat and crypto ledgers
Multi-region deployment compliant with data residency requirements across all jurisdictions
Real-time monitoring with 50+ financial and blockchain-specific KPIs
Strategic Architecture
Architecture Strategy
Buburuza's architecture employs cloud-native infrastructure on AWS with explicit separation of concerns between banking, wallet, and blockchain layers. This design ensures regulatory compliance, operational resilience, and clear blast radius containment.
Core Banking Systems
Traditional banking services (accounts, transfers, loans) with strict regulatory compliance
Separate database and compute infrastructure from wallet services
Integration with payment partners (Hi-fi, Bridge, card networks) with dedicated failover
Wallet & Payment Layer
Fiat and crypto wallet services with separate ledgers
High-throughput transaction processing with rate limiting and throttling for abuse prevention
Dedicated custody infrastructure isolated from operational systems
Blockchain Infrastructure Layer
Arbitrum/Ethereum full and archive nodes for settlement and verification
RPC endpoints with burst capacity for read-heavy blockchain queries
Layer 3 sequencer infrastructure (Orbit-based) for optimized settlement
Smart contract infrastructure with automated audit and deployment pipelines
Scalability Strategy
Separate scaling strategies are implemented for different workload types to ensure optimal performance and cost efficiency:
Wallet Transaction Scaling (High TPS)
Horizontal auto-scaling supporting 10,000+ TPS during peak periods
Write-optimized database sharding with read replicas for balance queries
Rate limiting per user/account to prevent financial abuse and API exhaustion
Queue-based asynchronous processing for non-critical operations
Blockchain RPC Burst Traffic
Auto-scaling RPC nodes to handle 10x traffic spikes during network congestion
Multi-tier caching (CloudFront, Redis) for frequently accessed blockchain data
Intelligent query routing between full, archive, and light nodes
Compliance Workloads (KYC/AML Batch Jobs)
Dedicated compute for batch processing isolated from real-time services
Scheduled scaling for daily/weekly compliance reports
Spot instances for cost optimization on non-critical batch workloads
High Availability
Financial-grade availability is achieved through redundancy at every critical layer with explicit focus on custody and transaction signing services:
Multi-AZ Deployment: All services across 3+ Availability Zones with active-active configuration
Blockchain RPC Endpoints: Load-balanced across multiple node providers with automatic failover
No Single Point of Failure: Custody systems, signing layers, and key access fully redundant
Disaster Recovery
Our DR strategy includes separate recovery paths for fiat, crypto, and blockchain infrastructure to meet regulatory requirements:
Fiat Ledger Recovery
Point-in-time recovery with 5-minute granularity
Cross-region replication to DR region with continuous sync
Banking regulator-approved backup retention (7 years)
Crypto Ledger Recovery
Separate backup strategy with blockchain verification
Re-sync capability from blockchain for transaction verification
Blockchain Data Recovery
Archive node snapshots for rapid restore (vs full re-sync)
Indexer state backups with replay capability
Multi-region RPC infrastructure with automatic failover
Regulatory DR Expectations
RTO: 1 hour for customer-facing services
RPO: 15 minutes for fiat transactions, near-zero for blockchain settlement
DR Drills: Quarterly exercises with banking regulators and payment partners (Hi-fi, Bridge)
Technology Stack
Compute
Amazon ECS Fargate for banking/wallet services, EC2 for blockchain nodes with high computing capacity
Database
Aurora PostgreSQL (Multi-AZ) for banking, sharded Aurora for wallet ledger, separate fiat/crypto
Blockchain Nodes
Buburuza full nodes (3x), Orbit L3 sequencer (HA pair)
Wallet Custody
AWS CloudHSM + Fireblocks MPC, 3-of-3 signing threshold, geographic distribution
Indexing
The Graph subgraphs for token transfers, custom indexers for wallet history
Caching
ElastiCache Redis (Multi-AZ) for wallet balances, CloudFront for RPC caching
Load Balancing
NLB for blockchain RPC with weighted routing
Secrets Management
AWS KMS for application secrets, HSM boundary for signing keys, Secrets Manager rotation
Monitoring
CloudWatch + Datadog for infrastructure, custom dashboards for wallet/blockchain metrics
Security
WAF with banking-specific rules, Shield Advanced, IAM least privilege, SOC 2 Type II compliant
Auto-Scaling Configuration
Wallet API Bursts
Scale-out at 70% CPU
Maximum 10 instances
10,000 TPS protection limit
RPC Traffic Spikes
Scale-out at 80% CPU or 1000 req/sec
Maximum 10 nodes
Cache-first routing
Compliance Batch Jobs
Scheduled scaling for daily KYC/AML processing
Financial Safety
Max TPS rate limiting enforced at API gateway to prevent abuse and system overload
Cloud Provider Selection
AWS Advantages for Buburuza
Regulator Acceptance
Trusted by banks with compliance-first approach
Critical
Data Residency
Regions in all required jurisdictions (us-east-1, eu-central-1)
Critical
Auditability
CloudTrail, Config, and audit logs meet SOC 2, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001 requirements
High
Financial Services
Proven by major banks (Capital One, Goldman Sachs), HSM support for custody
High
Financial & Regulatory Rationale
Managed Services for Auditability: AWS managed services (Aurora, ECS, HSM) provide comprehensive audit trails and automated compliance reporting required by banking regulators. All infrastructure changes are tracked, versioned, and auditable.
Region Selection for Data Residency: Primary regions selected based on regulatory requirements: us-east-1 (US operations), eu-central-1 (GDPR compliance).
Metrics & Monitoring
Key Performance Indicators
Service Availability
Banking & wallet uptime
99.99%
99.997%
Wallet Balance Consistency
Ledger accuracy across replicas
100%
100%
Transaction Finality Time
Blockchain settlement confirmation
< 2 min
1.2 min
Failed Signing Attempts
HSM/MPC signing failures
< 0.01%
0.003%
Blockchain Re-org Detection
Time to detect chain reorganization
< 30 sec
12 sec
KYC/AML Processing Time
Compliance check completion SLA
< 4 hours
5 min
Risk Management
Financial & Blockchain Risks
Private Key Compromise
Unauthorized access to customer crypto assets
MPC 3-of-3 threshold, HSM isolation, anomaly detection for unusual signing patterns
Very Low
Critical
Smart Contract Failure
Funds locked or lost in contract bug
Multi-audit process (Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin), formal verification, upgrade mechanisms
Low
Critical
Blockchain Congestion
Transaction delays, high gas fees
Dynamic gas pricing, L2/L3 fallback, batch processing, user notification system
Medium
Medium
Oracle Failure
Incorrect price feeds affecting trading
Multiple oracle sources (Chainlink, API3), deviation thresholds, circuit breakers
Low
High
Regulatory Partner Failure
Hi-fi, Bridge or payment rail outage
Multiple payment partners, failover routing, manual reconciliation procedures
Medium
High
Testing & Validation
Financial Services Testing
Smart Contract Audits: All production contracts audited by OpenZeppelin, formal verification for critical components, quarterly re-audits
Wallet Signing Failure Simulations: Monthly chaos engineering tests including HSM unavailability, MPC threshold failures, network partitions
Blockchain Congestion Tests: Simulated 10x gas price increases, mempool saturation, sustained 50-block congestion scenarios
RPC Failover Tests: Automated failover validation between node providers, sub-second detection and routing
Regulatory DR Drills: Quarterly coordinated exercises with banking regulators, Hi-fi/Bridge integration partners, documented RTO/RPO compliance
Load Testing Results
Wallet Transactions
10,000 TPS
142ms p95
PASS
RPC Burst Traffic
10x baseline
285ms p95
PASS
Signing Service HA
2 HSM failure
0 downtime
PASS
DR Failover (Bank)
Region failure
52 min RTO
PASS
DR Failover (Wallet)
Ledger corruption
38 min RTO
PASS
Summary
Buburuza's regulated financial and blockchain infrastructure represents a comprehensive approach to operating a digital bank with integrated cryptocurrency services across multiple jurisdictions. The architecture prioritizes customer fund safety, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience above all other concerns.
Key Achievements
Customer Funds Safety: Zero incidents of unauthorized access, 100% ledger consistency across all systems
Regulatory Readiness: Ready for production-grade regulatory compliance banking platform
Operational Resilience: 99.997% availability, validated RTO/RPO compliance, comprehensive disaster recovery capabilities
Blockchain Integration: Institutional-grade custody, high-throughput settlement, smart contract security
Separation of Concerns: Banking, wallet, and blockchain systems are architecturally isolated to contain blast radius
Continuous Improvement
Buburuza maintains an active program of quarterly security audits, monthly DR drills, and continuous monitoring of systemic quality metrics. All infrastructure changes undergo rigorous review and testing before deployment to production.
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