circulo

A Playful Take on p2p Payments

CIRCULO 1 is deprecated. Join us in playing with CIRCULO 2

THE BELOW CONTENT IS FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES

We are all done testing Circulo 1 (aka Circulo v0.1.0). As we had intended, we pushed this "chatty" version of Circulo to its limits and are all wrapped up on testing for this release. Thanks to the dozens and dozens of people that have played around with the app. If you've encountered issues that you don't already see mentioned, please add them as issues.

Introduction

Circulo is a generosity oriented peer-to-peer payments system, built using the Unyt Accounting engine.

Everyone starts with an account balance of zero and a small credit limit. Your credit limit determines the max you can spend below zero.

Circulo makes use of a very simple credit algorithm: every time you send someone some units, your credit limit increases by 10. This is a very simple, and easily gameable credit algorithm. It also makes it easy for people to play with it.

In Circulo, as soon as you send someone units, your account will be debited. However, the receiver's account balance won't include those units until they exercize their own agency and choose to accept them. If they never accept them, they remain available for them to collect. No one else is able to claim them.

By anchoring activity in the agency of the participants themselves, Circulo opens up some interesting new efficiencies and possibilities. These will get explored in more detail in future releases.

To get started,

1. Download and Install your computer operating system's version of Circulo.
2. Give it a minute or two to sync with others.
3. Share your Circulo address with the others in the community with this Gift Giving Form.
4. Play around with Sending and Requesting CIRC (Circulo's accounting unit) to other folks using their addresses, available in the Circulo Gift Giving Sheet.

If you have other questions, check out the FAQ section.

Testing

Circulo is a toddler as far as software goes. But feel free to try and trip it up anyway. No one will judge you.

This first release of Circulo will be "chatty" meaning that every device will be responsible for holding onto every piece of content, and will gossip with every other device. That means that as more people use the app, we can expect performance to slow down, or even grind to a halt, if there is too much gossip needing to happen.

Future releases will have "less chatty" settings, but together we will have a chance to see how much activity this "least efficient" version can handle in the real world before it starts to stumble.

If you see an error, please report it as an issue (if not already reported).

Some quick and dirty hacks to help get past an error:

1. Reload: When in doubt try: Right click > Reload
2. Restart: When a few reload tries don't work, please quit and restart
3. Wait: making yourself a cup of tea resolves most things

We are using software called Sentry to help track errors so we can better understand their frequency and context. But Sentry only catches certain problems. Your reporting of issues helps us recognize our mistakes so we can work on being better next time.

Downloads

Windows MSI Installer (x64) EXE Setup (x64)

MacOS Silicon (arm64) Intel (x64)

Linux AppImage (Universal) Debian Package (.deb)

Note: Download links point to the v0.1.0 release. For the latest version, visit the releases page.

Installation

Windows

1. Download the .msi installer
2. Run the installer and follow the setup wizard
3. Launch Circulo from the Start menu

macOS

1. Download the .dmg file
2. Open the DMG and drag Circulo to your Applications folder
3. Launch from Applications (you may need to allow the app in System Preferences > Security)

Linux

AppImage (Recommended)

1. Download the .AppImage file
2. Make it executable: chmod +x circulo_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage
3. Run: ./circulo_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage

Debian/Ubuntu

1. Download the .deb package
2. Install: sudo dpkg -i circulo_0.1.0_amd64.deb
3. Run: circulo

System Requirements

Platform	Minimum Requirements
Windows	Windows 10 (64-bit) or later
macOS	macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
Linux	Ubuntu 18.04+ / equivalent distribution

Recommended: 4GB RAM, 1GB free disk space, internet connection for updates

Support

• FAQs
• Share your address
• Look up addresses
• Report Issues

License

This project is licensed under the terms specified in the LICENSE file.