Trusted IOUsbetween people
Your contacts. Your agreements.
eIOU records who owes whom between trusted contacts. Use your recorded credit to exchange goods and services through your connections. Transfers depend on available routes, credit limits, and participants accepting eIOU.
Prefer us to host your wallet? Explore our upcoming hosted-wallet beta and reservation details. The beta is not yet live.
Connect your node to people you trust and set credit limits with your contacts. Each pair keeps its own record of what is owed. A route through willing contacts can connect people who do not know each other directly; every step still depends on that pair’s agreement.
Use the credit you have earned
Alice does €30 of design work for Bob. Bob records an obligation of €30 to Alice in eIOU, and both nodes keep it on record. Alice has a €30 claim on Bob that she can leverage through willing connections.
For example, Alice wants €10 of goods from Carol, who is connected to Bob. If Bob and Carol accept the route within their own limits, Alice can leverage €10 of her recorded credit to obtain the goods through Bob. The nodes record the resulting bilateral obligations as the value moves through the route; Alice cannot assume that Carol or any other shop will accept it.
There is no repayment date in the system. If Bob does not settle the obligation, Alice’s claim remains on record and she can keep leveraging it where participants accept it and a usable route exists. eIOU records the obligation but does not enforce settlement or reimburse her. See how transfers and balances work.
In testing today: AI inference
The MCP passthrough plugin connects an AI client to your eIOU node, which can find an inference provider through your contacts. Requests use agreed credit and pricing along that route. The plugin is in testing, with access and providers subject to availability.
Inference is one application of eIOU’s broader purpose: recording and routing obligations for goods and services between willing participants.
Explore the MCP testing pilot →
View your Information
View your node’s identity
on the network.
Use the protocol for agreements about goods, services, or other obligations. The software records balances and routes transfers through connected contacts within their credit limits.
Record IOUs
Record what you owe in units agreed with your contacts.
Track transfers
Follow obligations exchanged with trusted participants.
Track balances
See what you owe and what each contact owes you.
Configure rules
Set contact credit limits and routing fees on your node.
eIOU is a simple, open, and flexible financial protocol for building services around credit agreed between participants.
Peer Transfers
Exchange IOUs along available trust routes
Peer-Set Fees
Routing contacts can charge fees
Decentralized
No central authority required
Bilateral Records
Each contact pair stores its obligations
Offer Routing
Set fees for relaying obligations
Built for Reality
Matches real financial relationships
Flexible Architecture
Adaptable to many use cases
Explicit Trust
Trust is visible, not assumed
Open Source
Fully auditable and transparent
Human-Readable Finance
Systems people can understand
Peer Transfers
Exchange IOUs along available trust routes
Peer-Set Fees
Routing contacts can charge fees
Bilateral Records
Each contact pair stores its obligations
Decentralized
No central authority required
Offer Routing
Set fees for relaying obligations
Built for Reality
Matches real financial relationships
Explicit Trust
Trust is visible, not assumed
Flexible Architecture
Adaptable to many use cases
Open Source
Fully auditable and transparent
Human-Readable Finance
Systems people can understand
How does eIOU compare?
eIOU records obligations between participants. The comparison below describes different ways to organize transactions. Recorded credit can be used through connected contacts, subject to their credit limits and acceptance; it is not automatically interchangeable with a bank balance.
Read the documentation, explore examples, and start building services that use credit agreements between trusted contacts.
Explore. Build. Contribute.
eIOU is fully open source and always will be. Community contribution is part of the design itself.