Architecting a scalable payment system is a complex task due to the need for data availability, consistency, and high availability in financial transactions. Traditional methods like manual sharding can handle increased loads but require significant manual effort and complexity, particularly as businesses grow and need to comply with geographical data storage regulations. CockroachDB offers a modern alternative by providing distributed SQL solutions that maintain ACID guarantees while allowing easy horizontal scaling without requiring changes to application logic. This simplifies the management of payment data, facilitates geographic data distribution, and allows seamless integration into SaaS applications and payment provider architectures. CockroachDB's ability to treat multiple nodes as a single logical database makes it a versatile option for businesses looking to future-proof their payment systems against the challenges of scale.