Fintech Lab
Lesson 6State and lifecycleIntermediate
Authorization holds and the reservation pattern
Why a 'wallet balance' is actually three different numbers.

A user with ₦20,000 in their wallet initiates a ₦5,000 withdrawal to their bank. Your provider settles bank withdrawals on T+1. Between now and tomorrow, the user must NOT be able to spend that ₦5,000 again. Welcome to the reservation pattern: the reason every fintech engineer eventually realizes 'available balance' and 'total balance' are different things.

Fintech Lab is a free, interactive lab for fintech engineers. Real ledger, your own sandbox, engineering patterns from production. See all 85 lessons.

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