For saving circles, chamas and business networks
Save and trade with the people you know.
We are building an app for groups whose members already know each other, to save in turns and to pay each other for goods and work. It runs on Circles, and every person gets the same 24 new Circles each day.
Our first pilot is for chamas in Kenya, and they can apply now. Wherever your group is, we would like to hear from it. Writing to contact@getcircles.one commits you to nothing.
From the team behind the Gnosis App.
Already use Circles? Open the Gnosis App
Your group already runs on trust
- chama
- susu
- pardner
- tanda
- stokvel
- equb
- committee
- tontine
- esusu
- arisan
In a saving circle, every member puts in the same amount each month and one of them takes the whole pot. People run them all over the world, under a hundred names.
In Italy and Belgium, thousands of small businesses also trade on trust. They pay each other in their network's own credits instead of euros.
Both run on members trusting each other. Circles adds money that every member gets, whatever their bank balance: the same 24 a day each.
How Circles works
Three rules, the same for every group on this page.
Everyone gets 24 Circles a day
Every person who joins gets 24 new Circles a day, one an hour, however long they have been a member. Circles balances shrink by about 7% a year, so Circles are made to be spent. Euros a group saves don't shrink.
Trust means you accept someone's Circles
You choose whom you accept Circles from, usually people you know. Trusting someone never makes you answer for what they owe. New people join when a member invites them.
Groups make their own rules
A group decides who joins. It can also have community money with its own name, which members get from their Circles. Members agree together what to use it for.
By June 2026, 25,391 people had joined Circles, and 8,859 of them collected new Circles between April and June. These are our own counts.
In design. Looking for one circle in Europe to try it first.
Aminata's saving circle in Lyon
Aminata is made up, like everyone in her notebook. Her circle has 12 members who each pay €200 a month for a year. Here is how it would run in the app we are designing.
- Had their turn
- Takes the pot in March
- Still waiting
- Every month
- 11 members pay €200 from their bank account, including whoever's turn it is, and that member takes €2,200.
- Awa's seat
- Awa is a student. Before the first payment the others agreed to cover her seat as a gift, so she pays no euros. She still puts in 72 Circles a month, 3 days' worth of her own, shared among the other 11. When her turn comes she takes €2,200 like everyone else.
- March
- Moussa needs his payout early for a flat deposit. He offers 120 Circles, 5 days' worth of his own, for the March turn. They go to the members still waiting for theirs.
- December
- Fatou sends €300 of her payout to the food bank.
Awa's seat is the group's choice. With it, each paying member puts in €2,400 and takes out €2,200: the €200 difference is their gift to her, and nobody owes money for her. Without it, everyone takes out what they put in.
None of this is in an app yet. Lawyers will check it, offering Circles for a turn included, before any group uses it. Payments in the pot, euros included, would be recorded on Gnosis Chain, where anyone can see them.
Talk to us about your circleTell us how many you are and where your members live. Writing commits you to nothing.
Also in design
Saving for a date
Everyone pays in each month and everyone takes their savings out on the same day: Eid, Christmas, the start of the school year.
Members in other countries
A member in London or Geneva pays from their pounds or francs, changed into the exact amount in euros the moment they pay. The pot only ever holds euros.
Pots in Circles
A community in the Gnosis App would put part of each member's Circles into a pot that goes round. 12 members putting in 300 a month make a pot of 3,600. That is 150 days of one person's Circles.
Kenya: applications open
First pilot: community money for chamas
A chama gives its community money a name of its own, and every member gets one an hour. They pay each other for haircuts, boda rides and repairs. The shillings they keep go to rent and school fees.
Brian Haircut and shave
30 Apwoche a cut
Kevin Boda ride within town
20 Apwoche a ride
Achieng Repairs and alterations
40 Apwoche an hour
In design. Looking for one network to start with.
For business networks that trade in their own credits
Networks like these bring their businesses new customers, and often credit without interest. Few of them have people who spend inside the network with money of their own. That is the part we are designing.
People with money of their own
Staff and neighbours get 24 Circles a day and spend part of them with your members.
Each business sets its terms
It decides how much of a price it takes in Circles, and at which hours: seats, tables and stock that would otherwise go unsold.
Trade between networks
Two networks accept each other's credits, up to limits they set.
Settling up once a month
Bills that cancel each other out around a loop of businesses are settled in one go.
A 2025 study of an Italian network of about 10,000 businesses found that links between businesses and people do more than their share to grow the part of the network where credits keep moving.
Talk to us about your networkYour members keep their own credits, limits and brokers.
Giulia's bakery belongs to a network like this. After 4pm she takes part of the price in Circles, for bread that would otherwise go unsold. At the end of the month she pays part of her staff's bonus in Circles. They spend it on weekday seats at the cinema down the road, which is in the same network.
An example. Each business sets its own share and hours.
Rules we keep
We never lend
We don't lend money and we don't check anyone's credit. Circles is for groups whose members already know each other.
We put no price on Circles
We never give Circles, or a group's own money, a price in euros or shillings. They are worth what members agree to trade them for.
Your group sets the rules
Who joins, the order of turns and what happens when someone stops paying are agreed by the group, before it starts.
Payments are public
Every payment is recorded on Gnosis Chain, a public blockchain. Anyone can see which accounts paid each other, how much and when, who trusts whom and who is in which group. We go through what that means with every group before it starts.
Questions people ask
What can I use today?
The Gnosis App, from our team. In it you can mint Circles, join communities, trust friends and spend in the marketplace. Chamas in Kenya can apply for the community money pilot. Everything else on this page is what we are designing, and none of it is in an app yet.
Who would hold our group's money?
Nobody yet: the euro saving circles on this page are not in an app. Who holds the euros, and under which licence, is one of the things lawyers are checking before any group starts. We will tell you in writing before your group decides anything.
We call it a tontine, a pardner or a susu. Is this for us?
If your members know each other and take the pot in turns, that is who we are designing for. Every group has its own name for it, and yours keeps its own. We say saving circle on this page. In France a tontine is also a regulated savings product, so we never use the word for ours.
How much are Circles worth?
We don't give them a price in euros, shillings or any other money, and you shouldn't plan on one. They are worth what people agree to trade them for. That is why this page counts them in Circles, or in days: one day is 24 Circles, what every person gets.
What happens if someone stops paying after their turn?
Your group deals with it as it does today, because you know each other. We never pay in for a missing member and never lend to cover the gap. We are considering whether stopping should also cost that member part of their future Circles. If we build it, your group would agree that rule before it starts.
Our members live in different countries. Can they join?
In the euro saving circles we are designing, members in the EU, the UK and Switzerland could pay in and take their payout with a bank account. Members elsewhere would need a local partner to change euros into their own money, and we don't have one yet. Tell us where your members live.
What does a pilot cost?
The chama pilot is free for the group and its members. For saving circles and business networks, we will tell you what it would cost, if anything, before your group decides.
What would our members need?
A smartphone with an internet connection. An account opens with the phone's own lock: fingerprint, face or PIN. Members choose people they trust to help them get it back if they lose their phone. In a euro saving circle, each member would also need a bank account in the EU, the UK or Switzerland.
We run a business network or a local currency. Where do we fit?
If your businesses already pay each other in credits, Circles can add people who spend inside your network: staff and customers with Circles of their own, at the hours and share of the price each business chooses. Your members keep their own credits, limits and rules. We are looking for one network to start with.
I already run a community in the Gnosis App. Where do I go?
Keep using the Gnosis App: communities, trust and the marketplace are there today. Pots in Circles are in design, and we want to hear from community owners first. Would your members put part of their Circles into a pot that goes round, and what would they use it for? Write to us.
Tell us how your group saves and trades
Write with your group's name, how many members it has, where you are and what you do together. We are starting with a few groups and will write back.
Not ready to try anything? Tell us how your group works today. It helps us build the right thing, and we won't try to sell you anything.
Or write to contact@getcircles.one
Running a chama in Kenya? Apply on the chama page