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What is Kakitu?

Kakitu is a feeless, instant digital currency designed as Kenya's digital shilling. It is built on the Nano protocol — one of the most efficient consensus mechanisms ever designed — and adapted specifically for Kenya and the East African financial landscape.

The name Kakitu means "our small thing" in Kikuyu, a nod to community ownership and grassroots adoption.

The Problem Kakitu Solves

Kenya has one of the world's highest rates of mobile money adoption, driven largely by M-Pesa. But M-Pesa charges fees on every transaction, imposes withdrawal and transfer limits, requires KYC for accounts, and is controlled by a single private corporation.

For the millions of Kenyans who send small amounts daily — paying for groceries, sending money to family, settling market debts — these fees add up. A 5 KES fee on a 50 KES transfer is a 10% tax on the poor.

Kakitu eliminates this entirely. Every transaction is:

  • Free — no fees, ever
  • Instant — confirmed in under a second
  • Open — no account required beyond a cryptographic key pair
  • Censorship-resistant — no single party controls the network

How Kakitu Works

Kakitu uses a Block Lattice — a data structure where every account has its own blockchain. Instead of every transaction competing to be included in a shared global block (like Bitcoin or Ethereum), each account independently manages its own chain of transactions.

This means:

  • Transactions don't compete with each other
  • No block size limits that cause congestion
  • No fees required to prioritize your transaction
  • Network throughput scales horizontally

Consensus is achieved through Open Representative Voting (ORV). Account holders delegate their balance weight to a representative of their choice. When a transaction is submitted, representatives vote on its validity. Once votes representing more than a quorum threshold (67% of online voting weight) are collected, the transaction is confirmed.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Sender
    participant Network
    participant Representatives
    participant Receiver

    Sender->>Network: Broadcast send block (signed)
    Network->>Representatives: Vote request
    Representatives->>Network: Votes collected
    Network->>Sender: Confirmation (< 1 second)
    Receiver->>Network: Broadcast receive block
    Network->>Receiver: Confirmed

Kakitu vs. Other Systems

Property Kakitu (KSHS) M-Pesa Bitcoin Ethereum
Fees 0 ~1–5% Variable (high) Variable (high)
Confirmation time < 1 second Instant (centralized) ~10–60 minutes ~15 seconds–minutes
Decentralized Yes No Yes Yes
Open source Yes No Yes Yes
Requires internet Yes Yes (or USSD) Yes Yes
Requires identity (KYC) No Yes No No
Energy use Minimal Low (centralized) Very high Moderate
Programmable Planned No Limited Yes

The KSHS Currency

The native currency of Kakitu is KSHS (Kenya Shilling digital equivalent). All addresses start with the prefix kshs_.

An example Kakitu address:

kshs_3t6k35gi95xu6tergt6p69ck76ogmitsa8mnijtpxm9fkcm736xtoncuohr3

The smallest unit of KSHS is raw. The conversion is:

1 KSHS = 10^30 raw

All RPC operations use raw units. Floating-point arithmetic should be avoided; use arbitrary-precision integer libraries.

Who Should Use This Documentation

This documentation targets:

  • Node operators — running infrastructure that supports the Kakitu network
  • Developers — building wallets, exchanges, or payment integrations on Kakitu
  • Protocol researchers — understanding the technical design of the Block Lattice and ORV
  • Community members — learning how to contribute, delegate voting weight, and run representatives

Next Steps