Esusu-ajo-chain/AjoChain

Nigeria's traditional rotating savings group, digitized on Stellar using Soroban smart contracts. # 🤝 AjoChain — On-Chain Cooperative Savings Protocol **AjoChain** is a decentralized protocol digitizing the traditional African rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) model—commonly known as *Esusu* or *Ajo*—using Stellar and Soroban smart contracts. --- ## 🌍 The Problem Across Africa, informal cooperative savings groups empower communities to pool capital and access lump sums of cash. However, these systems rely entirely on a central human coordinator. This creates a single point of failure: coordinators can mismanage funds, abscond, or make human errors, breaking the foundational chain of trust. ## 💡 The Solution AjoChain removes the need for a central coordinator by replacing them with a trustless Soroban smart contract. - **🔍 Transparent:** Every cycle and contribution is fully verifiable on-chain. - **⚡ Automated:** The smart contract auto-distributes the pot to the designated member per round. - **🌐 Inclusive:** Built on Stellar to ensure near-zero micro-transaction fees, making it genuinely accessible to everyday users. - **🛡️ Secure:** Collateral vault prevents rational defaults; governance timelock prevents admin abuse. - **⭐ Merit-Based:** On-chain reputation system rewards consistent participation with access to premium pools. --- ## 🏛️ Architecture AjoChain is a modular protocol composed of **5 Soroban smart contracts**: ``` ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Frontend (Next.js 15) │ │ Dashboard │ Pool Explorer │ Create Pool │ Profile │ └──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘ │ ┌──────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┐ │ Stellar / Soroban │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ │ Factory │──│ Pool │──│ Collateral │ │ │ │ Registry │ │ Lifecycle│ │ Vault │ │ │ …