About Ajo
The tradition already works. We just moved who holds the pot.
Ajo, Esusu, Chama, Tanda, Susu, committee, kameti — the rotating savings circle exists, under a different name, on every continent, because it works. Ajo the project doesn't reinvent it. It gives the same mechanic a custodian that can't vanish, get sick, or spend what isn't theirs.
What changes
Same circle, different custodian
| Informal circle | Ajo | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the pot | The organizer, physically or in a bank account | A Soroban smart contract |
| What happens if someone vanishes | Everyone still owed a payout loses their contribution | Payout still happens from whatever was actually collected |
| Payout order | Agreed verbally, enforced by trust | Fixed by join order, enforced by the contract |
| Record of who paid what | A notebook, a group chat, someone's memory | An on-chain event log anyone can independently check |
| Who it can include | People who already trust each other | Anyone with a wallet — the contract is the trust |
Where this is today
Honest status
Ajo runs on Stellar's public testnet today, not mainnet — free to use while that's true. The contract is real and tested; the frontend talks to it directly, with no backend in between.
Circles can settle in native XLM or any Stellar Asset Contract token, including stablecoins. A mainnet deployment is next. See the README for the full roadmap.
The full source — contract and frontend — is public on GitHub.