content/blog/2020/2020-02-24-goodbye_upi_link.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+title: Goodbye upi.link
+author: rhnvrm
+type: post
+date: 2020-02-24T12:38:24+00:00
+draft: false
+url: blog/2020/02/24/goodbye-upi-link
+
+---
+
+Dear upi.link users
+
+Thanks for using upi.link and making it grow organically to over ~2k daily hits.
+
+Due to a takedown request for the domain upi.link from the NPCI I have had to 
+shutdown upi.link for now.
+
+I had created upi.link to solve my own problem. Till date, sharing a upi request
+outside an App is not possible without an intermediary for free. After sharing a
+prototype with people in my workplace, I found out that it was useful beyond
+what I had imagined. I shared it with more
+people and finally put it up online. It has not been my best work 
+but more or less was an experiment for me. Running upi.link with the least
+amount of cost and infra setup was personal challenge for me. For over a year I
+had run this without any extra cost to me except the domain name.
+
+Unfortunately, I was naive when I started building this to assume that the
+NPCI is a government body and UPI is a platform. In reality, the NPCI is a 
+non-profit (not non-commercial) body and UPI is its product. Even though some  
+of the UPI spec is open, it can hardly be called an open product. NPCI owns 
+a trademark for UPI and also has a guideline for domains using the trademark. 
+
+At the moment, I am working on other things and I don't have the resources to
+keep the upi.link domain online by either asking/paying NPCI for allowing use of
+this domain nor do I have any bandwidth in further developing anything on top of
+upi.link as of now. 
+
+I would also like to add that being involved in the fintech space in India, I
+have come to appreciate what UPI has provided all of us in the short term. I am 
+also aware of the rising amounts of scams happening with UPI which the
+NPCI tries to prevent through partner apps like BHIM, GooglePay, PhonePe etc. 
+Also, the fact that it has successfully reached out and onboarded 
+so many people and organizations is a monumental feat in itself. 
+
+Some people, had suggested open sourcing this project but unfortunately; some
+decisions, I had taken to reduce the cost of hosting the website, hinder the scope
+of opensourcing the project.
+
+Regards

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