abantu

What it is

Abantu means "people" in Kinyarwanda. It is where a group makes decisions together: who the members are, which roles they hold, what is proposed and voted on, which projects run, and which rules (protocols) the group adopts.

The vision

There is no platform owner. A community's history is a signed log kept on each member's device; nobody, including us, can change it, read it, or switch it off. A community writes its own rules and can tighten paramira's defaults, never loosen them.

It must never become a place where an outsider can find out who belongs to which community.

Using it

1. Set up your identity: import it from iwacu by scanning a QR code, or start fresh with a name. The keys are made on your device.

2. Join or create a community: by an invitation from a member.

3. Propose and vote: write a proposal with a deadline; members vote Yes or No.

4. Give roles: treasurer, secretary, reviewer: whatever your community needs.

5. Adopt protocols: ready-made rules (how votes count, how trades work) your community switches on.

6. Run projects: shared work with its own members and tasks.

The full guide is on soma.

How it's built

Every change in a community is an event signed by the member who made it, chained to the one before. Each member's app rebuilds the community from those events. Members sync through a relay that stores and forwards events it can't read, or directly, and keep working offline.

Identities are Ed25519 keys (did:iwacu) on the member's phone or computer; a browser on a shared computer is linked to the phone and holds no identity of its own.

Run it yourself

The apps' code will be published after their outside security review. Until then, use the web app at abantu.paramira.org or try it in the playground; a community's data stays on its members' devices either way.

Get help

We can set abantu up for your community, and stay around to help, for a minimum donation.