US$500B+ of informal finance, ready for infrastructure

Susu, Pardna, Stokvel, Tanda, Chama — millions of people use these systems every day. They are not informal because the participants don't know what they're doing. They are informal because formal finance has failed them.

Bringing them online is not about replacing the trust. It's about preserving it while removing the operational friction. Circl encodes the bylaws members already use, automates the bookkeeping, secures the funds in member-controlled wallets, and provides the audit trail regulators need.

We do not become the bank. We become the protocol layer underneath community finance — the way Stripe became the protocol layer underneath e-commerce payments.