Vision and Glossary¶
Major definitions¶
Payment Product¶
A Payment Product defines how a payment order is initiated and what Product-specific information, validation, and customer actions are required.
Each Product may be delivered through:
API
SDK
Reusable or embedded components
DragonPay-hosted interface
White-label CU interface
CU-built interface
External participant experience
The channel experience is the customer-facing implementation of the Payment Product, not a separate Product category.
The Payment Product submits a normalized payment order to the Payment Hub.
Initial Product: PP-01 — Person-to-Person Payments
Route Type¶
A Route Type is a specific execution path a payment can move through — for example ON_US, ACH, FEDNOW/RTP, CARD, CROSS_BORDER, or STABLECOIN. The Product workflow (PH-04) determines which Route Type a payment requires or permits; PH-07 resolves that requirement against the Tenant's configured, executable Route Capabilities and returns a Route Decision; PH-08 executes the selected Route Type through the applicable Connector.
A Product may support multiple Route Types, which PH-07 selects among based on Product-permitted alternatives, timing, cost, and current Connection health. Available Route Types depend on the CU’s capabilities, provider relationships, network participation, policies, and implementation readiness.
Payment Hub¶
The Payment Hub contains the shared capabilities used to validate, control, execute, track, reconcile, and operate payment orders across Products and Route Types.
The Hub allows new Products and Route Types to reuse the same central payment capabilities rather than recreate them.
Connector¶
A Connector is provider- or interface-specific DragonPay software that:
Receives a standard Payment Instruction
Translates it into the external interface’s required format
Communicates with the external system
Normalizes the result back into DragonPay
PH-08 defines the common Connector Contract used by every concrete Connector.
Integration¶
An Integration is the implementation and launch effort required to connect DragonPay to a specific CU or external provider.
It may include:
Connector development
Connection configuration
Authentication and credentials
Data and status mapping
API or file implementation
Testing and certification
Production readiness
An Integration delivers the concrete Connector and connection. It is not an additional runtime layer.
Operational and Administrative Experience¶
DragonPay provides a common operational experience across Payment Products, Route Types, and credit unions. Authorized DragonPay and CU operations users can search and review payments, inspect transaction history and execution details, manage exceptions and reconciliation, perform approved corrective actions, administer configuration, and access reporting through DragonPay-provided interfaces or APIs.
Operational actions execute through controlled Payment Hub services and are permissioned and audited. Transaction processing remains isolated from analytical and reporting workloads through purpose-built operational read models and analytical data stores.