What you can do

As a member you hold your own key, on your own phone, and the community’s station records what you sign. Nobody can move your balance, cast your vote, or speak in your name without that key.

Here is what the app lets you do today, in the order you will meet it:

1. Create a wallet and get your rrn1… address. Install the app.
2. Join a community by pairing with its station in person. Join your community.
3. Pay and get paid in Commons, with a settlement window that protects both sides. Pay and get paid.
4. Vouch for people you know, and build your own standing through trade and vouches. Vouching and standing.
5. Back up your identity with a recovery circle and an export, so a lost phone need not be a lost identity. Back up and recover your keys.
6. Know what happens when the network is down, and what a headroom certificate is for. Today the phone app waits for the station; the command-line wallet keeps signing. When the network is down.
7. Offer and find things in the marketplace, agree a price, and pay for what you agreed. The marketplace.
8. Contest a payment that went wrong, respond when someone contests yours, and serve on a jury when drawn. Contest a payment.
9. Take part in governance: read the Charter, co-sign and vote on proposals. See the organizers’ section for how it works: How decisions get made.
10. Use a laptop instead of a phone if you have no Android phone, with the same identity model from a terminal. Using a computer instead of a phone.

Do not use this with real value. This is pilot software. Trade with play stakes until an independent security audit says otherwise. See Security and audits.

Two things that are different here

Your balance can be negative, and that is fine. There is no bank issuing Commons. When you are paid, your balance rises; when you pay, it falls. A newcomer with nothing to sell but time simply starts by going a little negative and works it back. There is a floor (20 Commons in debt by default) below which the software will not let you sign, so nobody can dig a hole the community cannot absorb.

Payments take a day or two to become final. Confirming a payment starts a clock. While it runs, either side can contest. When it stops, balances move. This is on purpose: it is how the community catches mistakes and fraud without a central authority. Do not expect instant finality, and do not worry when a confirmed payment shows as pending.