After a year of incubation, the “Community Superapp” Fedi officially becomes… thrown out Yesterday it announced plans to open source its Freedom technology stack.
Introduced in 2022, It covers It is a financial platform that seeks to empower people with financial access and resources by harnessing the power of local communities.
The launch of Fedi, designed with a privacy-first mindset, is a major step forward in promoting grassroots economic development and individual freedom. Fedimint’s consensus protocol enables community leaders to organize common resources, support the sovereignty of their participants, and stimulate social opportunities.
“A single piece of software that can replace multiple legacy applications with safe and secure alternatives driven not by corporations, but by communities.”
Yesterday's release focused on the people behind this effort and their unique vision for the project. presentation Available on Fedi’s website, the company highlights how different partners, including humanitarian groups, are exploring ways to make communities more sustainable using the app.
“Those of us who have the care, the vision and the determination to make it happen,” says company co-founder Obi Nwosu.
In the image of their communities
At the heart of Fedi is the idea that people should have more say in who they trust with their money and data. In Madeira, Portugal, a non-profit organisation is connecting entrepreneurs, traders and bitcoin enthusiasts using the Fedi app.
Free wood Fedi operates a federation that offers different services that support the local bitcoin economy. Everything is centered around the community and its members. While applications such as custody, payments, and messaging have historically been the province of corporations and opaque service providers, Fedi enables local neighbors, groups, and associations to use their technology in the service of others.
Unlike other bitcoin protocols that attempt to eliminate trust, the project seeks to enable the potential of real-world relationships and connections between its users.
“We recognize that the most advanced technology out there is the community. Communities on their own are creative, innovative and resourceful. All they need is a tool to help them grow and increase their potential,” shared Mary Imasuen, Global Marketing Manager, during the project’s virtual event.
Operators, called guardians, can customize their community experience, allowing each federation to tailor the platform to the needs of its participants. For Chef Lopez in Togo, the app is used to launch new microcredit initiatives that improve access to agricultural resources in his region. Agricultural cooperatives organize through the Fedi app and pool resources for delegated representatives to purchase the supplies needed to maintain their operations.
To facilitate the onboarding of these communities, Fedi also revealed details about the “Fedi Order,” a group of technically trained individuals deployed around the world to assist with the process.
A radically new approach
Fedi relies on a novel technological architecture based on the Federation Protocol originally created by bitcoin developer and Fedi co-founder Eric Sirion. Recognizing the challenges of existing self-custody solutions and being aware of the risks associated with centralized custodians, Fedi introduces an alternative called “community custody.”
Fedi relies on a federation of guardians to take shared control of its members’ assets and eliminates trust in a single party through threshold signatures.
Think of it as a multi-signature community wallet. To improve upon existing custodial solutions, the project leverages Chaumian eCash, a privacy-preserving form of digital cash that represents rights to the community’s bitcoin reserves. This allows transactions between community members to remain private and protects balances from being revealed to observers.
Before bitcoin and blockchains, computer scientist Nick Szabo had identified the potential of using micro-organizations to secure financial transactions, an idea he had dubbed “Secure property titles with the owner's authority”. More recently, the concept of federations was popularized with Blockstream’s implementation of the Liquid side chain.
Beyond fast, highly scalable, private payments, Fedi’s consensus system creates a versatile platform that can unlock a variety of use cases. Thanks to its high-performance infrastructure, the protocol allows participants to deploy modular “freedom tools,” such as a chat interface that supports encrypted messaging, private groups, and social payments. “Fedi mods” can be used by third-party developers and applications to introduce new features to the platform and distribute them to their network of federations.
“Mods are unique web apps that integrate seamlessly with Fedi and personalize your experience. They let you do things like recharge your phone, save money with friends, and buy gift cards.”
More than just a wallet, Fedi becomes an operating system for the communities it supports, empowering them, often for the first time, to participate in the digital economy.
Notable features introduced during yesterday’s unveiling are the ability to make offline payments and the “Stable Balance” used to link users’ balances to their local currency.
The Fedi app is available today in iOS and AndroidCommunity leaders and organizations interested in building with Fedi are encouraged to: register for the programme. A grant is available to help federations develop.
