Returning to the Interledger Impact Team for a second year has been one of the most grounding and growth-filled experiences of my journey so far. What made this year especially memorable wasn’t just the chance to dig deeper into the Interledger ecosystem it was building something real, something that directly responded to what people in our communities need. This time, we weren’t just researching financial exclusion. We were designing against it.
Inspired by conversations and empathy mapping exercises focused on the underbanked, I built a prototype called TreasuryConnect. It’s a digital wallet powered by the Interledger Protocol, but at its core, it’s so much more than that. TreasuryConnect is built on the idea that people don’t trust financial apps because those apps weren’t made for them. They were made around fees, barriers, and credit scores none of which speak to someone who pays rent in cash or gets financial advice from a neighbor, not a banker.
TreasuryConnect flips that model. It’s a wallet that prioritizes community trust over traditional verification. Users can sign up not just with a photo ID, but with the endorsement of a local organization that knows them whether that’s a church, a food pantry, or a neighborhood nonprofit. The goal? To reduce friction and build belonging, using the open payment rails of Interledger to move money quickly and cheaply across platforms.
The prototype was built using GitHub, which let me visually design and simulate what real interactions might feel like. Users can check their balance, send or request payments using ILP addresses, and see a transaction history. It’s still early stage, but it’s real enough to test, gather feedback, and iterate which is exactly what open-source, open-payment systems should make possible.
``Being able to build something like this even though I’m not the best at building websites from scratch during the program not just write about it, but actually design a tool that could one day support real people made the experience feel both creative and urgent. It also reminded me that financial inclusion doesn’t have to mean reinventing the entire system. Sometimes, it just means making sure more people can get through the door.
Special thanks to @andrewmangle and the entire Interledger team for making space for second-year returners like me to keep pushing the work forward. TreasuryConnect is just the start but the mission behind it is one I’m committed to for the long haul.
Top comments (0)