We build infrastructure for public money.
Aksum Labs is an independent research and engineering lab. We specify and build the substrate that monetary authorities require to issue, settle, supervise, and interoperate digital public money.
Working assumptions of the lab.
The lab operates by a small set of working principles. They are stated openly so they can be argued with.
Sovereignty as a property
Money issued by a sovereign authority must remain controllable by that authority. The platform is engineered so that issuance, supervision, and policy levers stay with the institution that bears responsibility for them.
Composability over coupling
The cores compose, but they do not entangle. Issuance, settlement, compliance, and interoperability are independently auditable. Each can be reviewed, replaced, or hardened without touching the rest.
Public good defaults
Where there is a choice between a public good default and a private extraction, the platform defaults to the former. The substrate is built to be operated transparently, under public interest law.
Specification before code
Every core is specified before it is implemented. The lab publishes its working assumptions as papers, memoranda, and notes. Open to institutional and academic review.
Open correspondence.
The lab engages with monetary authorities, ministries of finance, multilateral institutions, and academic peers.