Developer Builds Blockchain-Based Rotating Savings Tool Inspired by Grandmother's Ajo Circle

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A developer has built Ajo Chain, a Solana-based smart contract application that digitises the traditional Nigerian rotating savings system known as ajo or esusu, where members pool fixed contributions and take turns receiving a full payout. The project was inspired by the developer's late grandmother, a market trader who ran such a circle but once suffered a loss when the trusted person holding the pooled funds could not repay money borrowed under personal financial pressure. Ajo Chain removes the need for a single trusted custodian by placing escrow, rotation order, and default tracking entirely on-chain, with payouts only released once all five members in a group have contributed. A narrow AI agent powered by Google Gemini assists human moderators by drafting plain-language summaries of disputed defaults based on on-chain evidence, but makes no final decisions. The project is currently running on Solana's devnet with no real funds at stake, and a live transparency page documents a completed test round including one deliberate default and a subsequent late catch-up payment.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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