Pasanaku

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What is a pasanaku? ​

Understand the savings-circle idea and how Pasanaku runs it onchain.

Goal ​

Know what you are joining: a fixed group, rotating pots, collateral, and shared vault yield.

The tradition ​

A pasanaku is a group savings circle. Members agree on a fixed contribution. Each round, everyone who is not receiving the pot pays in; one person collects the combined amount. Over time, each member gets exactly one turn.

The same pattern appears under many names — tanda, susu, chit fund, and others. Families and communities have used it for generations.

How Pasanaku differs ​

Traditional circlePasanaku
Trust and social pressureCollateral locked in a vault
Informal recipient orderShuffled payout order when the pool starts
Cash or bank transfersOnchain deposits and pull claims
No automatic yield shareVault appreciation pooled from start to end

Pasanaku is still a structured circle among exactly six or twelve people — not a bank and not an open-ended fund.

Lifecycle ​

mermaid
flowchart TD
  supply[Supply collateral] --> createJoin[Create or join]
  createJoin -->|roster full| start[Circle starts]
  createJoin -->|stale| leave[Leave and unlock]
  start --> rounds[Rounds: deposit, tick, claim]
  rounds --> endNode[End: principal and yield]
  1. You supply the deployment’s asset as collateral (vault shares held by the contract).
  2. You create or join until the roster is full.
  3. The circle starts: order is shuffled, membership receipts mint, yield accounting begins.
  4. Each round, obligors fund the per-round amount; after at least 28 days anyone can tick; the recipient claims.
  5. After the last tick, principal returns and surplus yield is split by shuffled position.

What the protocol does ​

One smart contract instance binds one ERC-20 asset and one ERC-4626 vault. Many pools can run at once. Your pledge locks shares so a missed payment can still cover the pot (when collateral is enough), with a small penalty going to the pool reserve, not the protocol owner.

Common mistakes ​

  • Thinking join order decides who gets paid first — payout order is shuffled at start.
  • Expecting yield on collateral before the circle starts — pool yield begins at start.
  • Treating estimates of end yield as guaranteed — misses and vault performance change the outcome.

See also ​