O Blockchain

A water-price-based stablecoin system — early-stage prototype, looking for contributors

This is a research prototype, not production software. It exists to explore an idea, gather feedback, and attract collaborators. We are looking for contributors, not customers.

• 🔬 Stage: architectural exploration on a Bitcoin Core 27.0 fork
• 🧪 Consensus code: several consensus-critical problems are known and openly tracked — see Current Status & Open Problems
• 📏 No performance claims: we publish measured numbers or nothing. Correctness comes before throughput.
• 📝 Feedback and contributions welcome — the open problems below are the best entry points

O Blockchain explores a monetary system where value is anchored to a universal basic need instead of fiat or scarcity.

• 💧 Water-price stability: 1 O = the price of 1 liter of bottled water in the local market
• 🌍 One O currency per national currency (O_USD, O_EUR, O_JPY, …) — 142 currencies defined
• 📏 Measurement, not oracles: users and bots submit water-price and exchange-rate measurements on-chain; validated by humans, averaged statistically
• ⚖️ Stabilization by incentives: when market rates drift from measured water-price rates, new coins are minted to users of stable currencies, diluting unstable ones — the offender's sanction becomes the reward of the offended
• 👤 Proof of personhood: one person = one identity, verified through multiple accepted methods (government ID, video call, document review, biometrics, third-party KYC — BrightID among them)
• 🔓 Open governance: economic parameters are community decisions, not developer decisions

The design rationale is documented in the O article series and in the GitHub Wiki.

Honest snapshot (August 2026). Active work happens on the ARCH-GlobalPaymentsV1 branch; a full spec-conformance audit lives at doc/SPEC_CONFORMANCE_AUDIT_2026-08.md.

• Builds on Linux via CMake (CI runs on every push)
• Multi-currency UTXO data structures and O-specific transaction types (user verification, water price, exchange rate, validation, invitations)
• Measurement submission → validation → statistical averaging → stability detection → stabilization minting, end-to-end in regtest
• Deterministic, consensus-seeded random draws for stabilization recipients and endorser selection (recently fixed — verification tests still wanted, see issue #3)

These are tracked as GitHub issues with open-problem labels, file:line pointers, and concrete deliverables. Claim one by commenting.

See the full list: open issues.

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/cno127/o-blockchain.git
cd o-blockchain

# Build with CMake
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

# Run in regtest mode
./src/bitcoind -regtest -daemon

# Create wallet
./src/bitcoin-cli -regtest createwallet "test"

# Generate blocks
./src/bitcoin-cli -regtest generatetoaddress 101 $(./src/bitcoin-cli -regtest getnewaddress)

# Check O currencies
./src/bitcoin-cli -regtest listocurrencies

See INSTALL.md for platform-specific build instructions.

1. Water-price measurement & rate setting: users and bots measure bottled water prices (0.9–1.1 L containers) in local fiat currencies, with URL or photo+GPS proof, validated by humans. The statistical average of accepted measurements sets each O currency's value; cross-currency rates derive from those values.
2. Stability monitoring: observed market exchange rates are compared with the theoretical (water-price) rates to classify each currency as stable or unstable.
3. Stabilization: deviations trigger minting to holders of stable currencies, creating economic pressure back toward the peg. How the mint is sized and whether a burn path exists are open design questions (#6, #7).
4. Proof of personhood: one person = one identity, enforced through endorsement-based user verification supporting several methods (government ID, video call, document review, biometrics, third-party KYC such as BrightID).
5. Universal Basic Income remains a long-term vision contingent on the above being proven correct; amounts would be community-governed.

• Base: Bitcoin Core 27.0 (C++)
• Consensus: hybrid PoW / PoB (proof-of-personhood-weighted), under active design
• Model: multi-currency UTXO
• Identity: endorsement-based proof of personhood with pluggable verification methods (government ID, video call, document review, biometrics, third-party KYC incl. BrightID)
• Volume accounting: L1 on-chain output value per currency only — no L2-reported volume in any consensus formula (decided; see #7)

• GitHub Wiki — architecture, measurement system, transaction types, stabilization, currency coverage, testing guide, RPC reference
• Spec-conformance audit (2026-08) — what the code actually does vs. what the spec says, with file:line evidence
• O article series — the design rationale and economic model, including why correctness comes before throughput

We welcome contributions from everyone — C++ engineers, testers, economists, data scientists, translators, and technical writers.

Best starting points:

1. Pick an open problem — each has file:line pointers and a concrete deliverable; claim it by commenting
2. No C++? Issue #12 (monetary simulation) needs modeling skills, not systems programming
3. Improve the wiki or add tests (regtest guide in the Testing Guide)

# Fork, branch, commit, PR
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/o-blockchain.git
cd o-blockchain
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
# ... make changes ...
git push origin feature/your-feature-name

CI builds run automatically on every push — check the Actions tab before requesting review. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

• 📚 Wiki: Documentation
• 🐙 GitHub: Issues & Discussions
• 🌍 Website: o.international
• 💼 LinkedIn: O International
• 📺 YouTube: O International Channel

Q: Why water price as the peg? A: Water is a universal basic need with consistent relative value globally. Each O currency targets 1 O = 1 liter of bottled water in its local market; exchange rates between O currencies derive from water-price ratios. Whether the incentive mechanism actually holds this peg is an open research question we are actively trying to answer (#12).

Q: Why 142 currencies instead of one? A: Price levels differ by country. Each O currency targets the water price in its own market, so O currencies have different values from each other. O_ONLY is a universal currency exchanging 1:1 with all O currencies while keeping the water-price peg through measurement and stabilization.

Q: What about Universal Basic Income? A: A long-term vision, not a current feature. It would require the consensus layer to be proven correct first, plus governance mechanisms that do not exist yet. Any amount would be set by community governance.

Q: Is unlimited supply inflationary? A: The design intends value to track water (a constant need) rather than scarcity, with stabilization minting counteracting drift. Whether that holds in practice is exactly what the monetary simulation work (#12) is meant to test.

Q: How do you prevent fake accounts? A: Proof of personhood: one person = one identity. Several verification methods are accepted — government ID, video call, document review, biometrics, and third-party KYC providers such as BrightID (decentralized social-graph verification).

More on the Wiki FAQ.

MIT — see COPYING.

• Bitcoin Core for the foundation
• BrightID and other identity providers for proof of personhood
• Contributors — including the ones we hope this README brings in

An honest prototype exploring money anchored to human needs. If the open problems above look interesting, we'd love your help. 🌍