LetsBalance.Life Open app

Infrastructure

Built to live on keys and relays, not on one server.

A blockchain is trusted for three reasons: everyone holds their own key, every record is signed, and the books are public and copied many times. Balanced accounts need exactly those three — not mining, not a global chain. Every payment is a note signed by the member and countersigned by the circle's node, the notes are kept on the Lana relays, and the money paid in stands behind a certificate signed by the money holder; the five layers below are how the same circle lives on members' keys and the relays.

your key = your account a server shows the balance cannot hold it cannot sign for you balance = the sum of signed records that name your key
1

A key is an account

In this plan your account is not on a server; it is your Lana key on your phone (the same key you sign in with). An account in EUR, GBP or USD is only the sum of signed records that name that key. A server can show you a balance — it will not hold it, and it will not be able to pay in your name.

note 1 A → B · 25 EUR prev: genesis · signed A note 2 A → C · 40 EUR prev: note 1 · signed A note 3 A → B · 10 EUR prev: note 2 · signed A note 3′ — fork prev: note 2 again = double spend, visible to all every member has a chain of their own notes, one per currency; gravity at the morning tide is a rule, not a note
2

Notes, not a ledger

Every payment is a note the giver signs: to whom, how much, in which currency, and which of my notes came before. Each member's notes form a chain — one per currency. Two notes pointing at the same previous note are a fork — a double spend that everyone can see. Gravity — the morning tide into the Common Good — is not anyone's note; it is a rule anyone can recompute from the notes, and the sum of all accounts still stays zero: gravity lowers the member's account and raises the Common Good's by the same amount.

A B member member circle node checks, countersigns relay 1relay 2relay 3relay 4 every note goes to every relay; any computer can rebuild the books
3

Relays keep the notes

Lana already has relays that hold the ecosystem's records. Notes are one more kind of record on the same relays. Every member carries their own notes; the relays carry everyone's. If the app disappeared tomorrow, the books could be rebuilt from the relays on any other computer in minutes — nothing is lost.

Wave certificate "I hold 1 000 EUR for key A, since 25 Sep 2026" signed: custodian X (public name, key, country) Registry of custodians X · Y · Z … signed by Lana a certificate counts only from the list Reserve attestation held on the bank account ≥ sum of certificates — custodian or auditor signs money you paid in = the sum of your certificates move to another custodian: X releases, Y accepts
4

Who holds your money — in public

Money you pay in is not a number in a database. It is a certificate signed by a money holder (custodian): "I hold 1 000 EUR for this key." The part of your wave that you paid in with money is the sum of such certificates, and everyone can see which custodian stands behind it. Custodians are listed in a public registry, publish reserve attestations (money held ≥ certificates issued, with the evidence linked; signed by the custodian itself or by an auditor it names — until an auditor signs, it is the custodian's own word), and a wave can move from one custodian to another. A computer cannot prove that a custodian has the money — that is why everything about them is public and checkable, so trust rests on evidence, not on a name.

circle A node A circle B node B one note, two countersignatures address = circle code + key (like an IBAN) a federation list says which circles are real no global chain, no global lookup
5

Circle nodes countersign; circles federate

A circle — a community — runs a node, the scribe. It cannot forge a note (it has no keys), but it checks that the giver can still give that much and that the receiver is a member of a circle, and countersigns; the receiver trusts the countersignature. Circles recognise each other through a short federation list; a payment across circles is one note with two countersignatures. The address carries the circle code, like an IBAN carries the bank, so nothing has to be looked up globally.

From shore to shore

How a payment travels

  1. The giver's app writes a note — to whom, how much, which note came before — and the giver's key signs it.
  2. The giver's circle node checks: is this really the giver's latest note in this currency? Is there enough left to give? Is the receiver a member of a circle? Are both circles on the federation list?
  3. The node countersigns: accepted, with both balances after — or refused, with the reason. Only now does the note count.
  4. The receiver's wave grows by what they received, up to the cap, and their community receives the matching amount. Gravity is not taken at the moment of payment; it works at the next morning tide.
  5. For a receiver in another circle, the receiver's node adds its own countersignature; both are needed.
  6. After the next morning tide the node publishes a checkpoint of each account and a morning record: how much gravity drew into the Common Good in total, and a hash of the per-member lines. In draft 0.1.0 those balances and amounts are public, so what gravity took from each member can be worked out from the relays.
How exchange between circles works → How exchange between currencies works →