Understanding Chamapesa App: The Open Network For Savings Group.

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INTRODUCTION :
Chamapesa had existed since 2012. The Distributed Table Banking App For The Last Billion. This is a Mobile App for Chamas in Kenya which will extend to other African countries with time. The The app will manage membership, book-keeping, share issuance, payments, and loans between Members. It will be integrated with local mobile money9 rails, and an Ethereum-compatible wallet for the Chamapesa ERC20 Token called Chamacoin. The Chamapesa app will also create a micro-blockchain (Ricardian Litechain) for each Chama. The Ricardian Litechains are a hybrid technology. It will be merged with the functionality of Ian Grigg’s Ricardo Transaction Suite with a blockchain. This Ricardin Litechains are small enough to fit on members’ smart phones and over 2G networks without breaching the blockchain security system. Chamapesa App is in alpha phase and uses the SOX (Secure Open Transactions) protocol to communicate securely over low quality (GSM Edge) data connections with minimal bandwidth. The Chamapesa app code name is ‘Talisman’.

HOW IT WORKS :
Small Groups Who know Each Other : This includes Chamas who know each other in reality. And holds some amount of trust between each other.
Saving Together: These are familiar friends who are involved together in Groups. As Chamapesa app also offers creation of social media group inside it.

Recording Assurances: For any new member that comes in. A previous member through whom he came into the group gives a proof of his trust over the incoming member. This can be done through ID cards and other credit records proving that he knows him in reality.
Guarantees: This comes inform of a performance bond made against another Chama member. This bonds can come in money, whereby the person who invited the new member guarantees to pay said amount of money should the new member default. This equally renders the new member’s
reputation to the group as poor which might even attract him/her a fine.
Stored In A Persona: These documents like the IDs (KYC) of members and their credit records are stored for easy retrieval from any member of the group. Making it more Decentralized.
Makes Loans To Members: Individuals can give loans to members on viewing member’s
records and a collateral can be used which comes inform of Chamacoin. Equally groups can issue a decentralized fiat currency(digital receipts for cash) with a smart contract/manager enabled by the Distributed Ricardian Contract. This tokens( digital receipts for cash) represents groups performance bond and record which can be used for group/chama to group/chama transactions. A portion of fees generated are paid back to the group who owns the capital thus generating funds for them. Chamacoin will be used to charge fees for transactions of decentralized fiat currency. This digital receipts for cash can be issued using Chamacoin as fee. For example when a group or an individual Chama requests a loan from another group or individual Chama. The person requesting loan gets the loan with the fiat token as the receipt( which has a value in Chamacoin). The value in Chamacoin now is the collateral. Should he fail to pay back. The evidence of the loan appears in the fiat token of Distributed Ricardain Contract (smart contract) which has value in Chamacoin. Should the price of Chamacoin at the market not equal to the cash. The Chamacoin price will be set high to equal the amount of Cash borrowed. In other words, there will be a P2P Market in Chamapesa app for the Digital Receipt Token and Chamacoin.

RICCY TOKENS:
The Chamapesa team began developing the app in Kenya, 2012. Head of Product, Toffene Kama, developed the most successful Chama app to date, called Tigopaare in Chad in 2015. The focus is on Kenya for it’s launch because of its relationships with both savings groups and financial regulators in Kenya. Chamapesa app will also have an exchange (Ricardo Exchange) for the Riccy Tokens(digital receipt for cash) and Chamacoin. This Riccy Tokens can be Destroyed by sending the token to the mint account inside Chamapesa app. Groups can issue their own Riccy tokens for it’s services like loans, shares and others. Riccy tokens can be issued through the Chamacoin Riccy Contract.

CHAMAS:
This is the native name synonymous to the Kenya community. Chama is used to refer to individuals of a group (Chamas) who come together to make contributions mostly on daily basis with a trusted individual as the Treasurer who holds this funds for the group. The monthly net fund gets to each member of the group on monthly basis or thereabouts in rotation as agreed by the group.

CHAMAPESA TEAM:

The Chamapesa Team is comprised of ten team members.

Ken Griffith is the Chief Executive Officer, Chamapesa. The Creator of Distributed Ricardian Contract.

Ian Grigg is the Chief Technology Officer, Chamapesa. The Inventor of Ricardian Contract.