Building the Conducting Team

for selfdriven.money

Applying the selfdriven Foundation’s 8 Areas of Focus framework to create a sovereign banking institution built on trust-by-architecture, community self-governance, and cryptographic identity.

selfdriven Foundation

selfdriven.money · selfdriven.foundation

March 2026 · Version 1.0

Contents

1. Introduction

selfdriven.money represents a new paradigm in banking: a sovereign financial institution where identity is self-certifying, governance is community-driven, and trust is established by architecture rather than institutional authority. This paper applies the selfdriven Foundation’s 8 Areas of Focus framework to define how the organisation behind selfdriven.money should be structured, operated, and governed.

The 8 Areas of Focus framework, developed as part of the selfdriven community actuation methodology, provides a holistic lens for building any self-governing organisation. Originally designed for community self-actuation, it maps directly onto the unique requirements of a banking entity that operates at the intersection of traditional financial services and decentralised identity infrastructure.

Each area of focus represents a critical organisational domain. Together, they form a complete operating model. This paper examines each area in the context of selfdriven.money, mapping responsibilities, structures, and outcomes.

2. The 8 Areas of Focus

The selfdriven Foundation identifies eight interconnected areas that any self-governing organisation must address to achieve sustainable, accountable operation. For selfdriven.money, these areas translate from community actuation into banking governance as follows:

# Area of Focus Foundation Purpose selfdriven.money Application

1 Direction Strategy and structures for overall direction Banking strategy, product vision, market positioning, and regulatory roadmap

2 Engagement Community awareness, network building, ecosystem partnerships Customer acquisition, community banking, partner network, and ecosystem integration

3 Enablement Research, skills development, capability building Financial literacy, onboarding, developer tools, and SSI education

4 Protocols Data protection, identity infrastructure, and technical standards KERI/ACDC identity, passkey authentication, cryptographic trust, and banking APIs

5 Sustainability Future funding, economic viability, resource stewardship Revenue model, treasury management, capital adequacy, and long-term financial health

6 Processes Operational structures and workflows Banking operations, compliance workflows, KYC/AML, transaction processing

7 Accountability Governance, transparency, and responsibility structures Regulatory compliance, audit trails, KERI-verified governance, and stakeholder reporting

8 Organisational How it is all organised Corporate structure, team design, role allocation, and decentralised operations ——– ——————– ——————————————————————- ——————————————————————————————

3. Direction

Direction establishes the strategic compass for selfdriven.money. It answers: where are we going, why, and how will we know we’ve arrived?

3.1 Strategic Vision

selfdriven.money exists to deliver the full functionality of traditional Australian banking—everyday accounts, savings, home loans, cards, BPAY, PayID, international transfers—while replacing institutional trust with cryptographic proof. The customer owns their identity. The bank proves its operations. Trust is bidirectional and verifiable.

3.2 Market Positioning

  • Primary market: Australians who want full banking services with sovereign identity control

  • Secondary market: Decentralised identity communities (Cardano, KERI/SSI ecosystem) seeking compliant financial services

  • Tertiary market: Organisations and DAOs requiring verifiable treasury management

3.3 Regulatory Roadmap

selfdriven.money operates within the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) framework. The direction area owns the licensing strategy:

  • Phase 1: Restricted ADI licence application with APRA, operating under a limited product set

  • Phase 2: Full ADI licence with complete deposit-taking, lending, and payments capability

  • Phase 3: International expansion leveraging KERI-based portable identity across jurisdictions

3.4 Decision-Making Framework

Strategic direction is governed by a multi-stakeholder model: a Board of Directors for fiduciary oversight, a KERI-verified governance council for community representation, and an executive team for operational execution. All strategic decisions are anchored in ACDC verifiable credentials, creating an immutable record of who decided what and when.

4. Engagement

Engagement governs how selfdriven.money builds and maintains relationships with its customers, community, ecosystem partners, and regulators.

4.1 Community Banking Model

Unlike traditional banks that treat customers as account holders, selfdriven.money treats them as community participants. Each customer holds a KERI Autonomous Identifier (AID) that represents their sovereign relationship with the bank. Engagement is not unilateral marketing—it is a bidirectional, cryptographically verified relationship.

4.2 Ecosystem Partnerships

  • Cardano ecosystem: Integration with DEX platforms, staking infrastructure, and native token support (ADA, USDCx, WMTx)

  • KERI/SSI ecosystem: Witness network partnerships, credential schema collaboration, and interoperability with vLEI/GLEIF infrastructure

  • Traditional finance: Correspondent banking relationships, payment network partnerships (Visa, Mastercard, BPAY, NPP/PayID)

  • NuNet and decentralised compute: Integration with selfdriven.network for infrastructure provisioning

4.3 Customer Acquisition Strategy

Engagement is driven through the selfdriven community actuation model: existing selfdriven.foundation community members become founding customers, who in turn activate their networks. Each referral carries a verifiable ACDC credential, creating a web-of-trust acquisition model rather than a paid advertising funnel.

5. Enablement

Enablement ensures that every participant in the selfdriven.money ecosystem—customers, staff, developers, and partners—has the knowledge and tools to operate effectively.

5.1 Customer Enablement

  • Financial literacy: Integrated educational content on savings strategies, home loan management, superannuation, and tax optimisation—delivered contextually within the banking interface

  • SSI onboarding: Guided passkey registration, KERI AID creation, and credential acceptance—designed so that a customer never needs to understand cryptography to benefit from it

  • Digital banking skills: Progressive disclosure of advanced features: BPAY scheduling, international transfers, card management, and spending insights

5.2 Developer Enablement

selfdriven.money publishes open APIs and developer tools:

  • Open Banking (CDR) compliant APIs for account, transaction, and payee data

  • KERI/ACDC credential issuance and verification SDKs

  • Agent-to-agent (A2A) protocol support for autonomous financial agents operating under delegated AIDs

  • SKILL.MD protocol integration for agent discovery and capability advertisement

5.3 Staff Enablement

Internal enablement follows the selfdriven Foundation’s skills framework: each team member has a personalised competency pathway spanning banking operations, compliance, cryptographic identity, and community facilitation.

6. Protocols

Protocols define the technical and procedural standards that make selfdriven.money trustworthy. This is the area where the selfdriven philosophy of “trust-by-architecture” becomes concrete.

6.1 Identity Infrastructure

KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure): Every customer, staff member, and organisational entity holds a KERI AID. The key event log (KEL) provides a cryptographically verifiable history of identity operations: inception, rotation, delegation, and interaction events.

ACDC (Authentic Chained Data Containers): Verifiable credentials issued against the KERI trust layer. Used for KYC attestations, role authorisations, account ownership proofs, and regulatory reporting credentials.

FIDO2/WebAuthn Passkeys: Customer-facing authentication uses passkeys (biometric/device-bound) linked to KERI AIDs via interaction events. No passwords, no SMS OTP—just cryptographic proof of identity.

6.2 Banking Protocols

  • NPP (New Payments Platform) integration for real-time PayID transfers

  • BPAY protocol compliance for bill payment processing

  • SWIFT/BIC connectivity for international wire transfers

  • Card scheme protocols (Visa, Mastercard) for debit and credit card operations

  • CDR (Consumer Data Right) APIs for open banking data sharing

6.3 Cryptographic Trust Model

selfdriven.money implements a three-layer trust architecture:

  • Layer 1 — Key Events: KERI provides the root of trust. Every identity operation is recorded in an append-only key event log, witnessed by a distributed network.

  • Layer 2 — Credentials: ACDC credentials attest to specific claims (KYC status, account authority, transaction limits) anchored in the KERI trust layer.

  • Layer 3 — Transactions: Banking transactions reference the credential layer. Every transfer, payment, or account operation carries a cryptographic link to the authorising identity and its credentials.

7. Sustainability

Sustainability ensures selfdriven.money can operate indefinitely without compromising its principles. It covers financial viability, resource stewardship, and long-term resilience.

7.1 Revenue Model

  • Net interest margin on deposits and lending (home loans, personal loans)

  • Interchange revenue from card transactions (Visa Debit, Mastercard Platinum)

  • Foreign exchange margin on international transfers

  • Premium account features (enhanced spending insights, multi-sig treasury, agent delegation)

  • Credential issuance and verification services for business customers

7.2 Capital Adequacy

As an APRA-regulated ADI, selfdriven.money maintains capital reserves per Basel III requirements. The sustainability area owns capital planning, stress testing, and liquidity management. Unique to selfdriven.money: reserve positions are transparently attested via ACDC credentials, giving depositors cryptographic proof of capital backing.

7.3 Environmental Sustainability

Built on Cardano’s proof-of-stake blockchain (consuming a fraction of the energy of proof-of-work systems), selfdriven.money’s infrastructure aligns with ESG commitments. The NuNet decentralised compute integration further reduces reliance on hyperscale cloud providers.

8. Processes

Processes define the operational workflows that deliver banking services reliably, compliantly, and at scale.

8.1 Core Banking Operations

  • Account origination: KERI AID creation → passkey registration → ACDC KYC credential issuance → BSB/account number assignment → PayID registration

  • Transaction processing: Real-time settlement via NPP, batch settlement for BPAY, T+1 for international transfers. Every transaction signed by the customer’s KERI AID.

  • Lending: Application → ACDC income/employment credential verification → automated credit assessment → KERI-signed loan agreement → settlement and offset account creation

8.2 Compliance Workflows

  • KYC/AML: Customer identity verified against government sources, attested as an ACDC credential. Ongoing monitoring via credential revocation checks.

  • Transaction monitoring: Automated suspicious matter detection with KERI-verified audit trail for AUSTRAC reporting.

  • Regulatory reporting: APRA, ASIC, and AUSTRAC reporting automated via credential-based data extraction—no manual data reconciliation.

8.3 Incident and Change Management

All process changes are recorded as KERI interaction events. Key rotation schedules ensure that compromised credentials can be revoked and replaced without disrupting banking services. The pre-rotation model means recovery keys exist before they are needed.

9. Accountability

Accountability ensures that selfdriven.money is answerable to its customers, regulators, and community—not through opaque institutional processes, but through cryptographic proof.

9.1 Regulatory Accountability

As an APRA-regulated entity, selfdriven.money submits to prudential supervision, external audit, and capital adequacy requirements. What makes it different: every regulatory report is backed by ACDC credentials, allowing regulators to cryptographically verify the data’s provenance without relying on the bank’s word alone.

9.2 Customer Accountability

  • Every transaction carries a KERI-verified provenance trail—customers can independently verify any banking action

  • Account statements are ACDC-attested documents, not just PDFs

  • Interest rate changes, fee modifications, and product updates are published as verifiable credentials

  • Customer complaints are tracked with KERI-timestamped interaction events

9.3 Governance Transparency

Board decisions, strategic changes, and material events are recorded as KERI events and published to the witness network. The community governance council has cryptographically verified voting records. selfdriven.money does not ask its stakeholders to trust it—it provides the tools for them to verify.

10. Organisational

The organisational area defines how all the other seven areas are structured into a functioning entity.

10.1 Corporate Structure

selfdriven.money operates as a subsidiary entity within the selfdriven Foundation ecosystem. The corporate structure balances regulatory requirements (APRA requires specific governance structures for ADIs) with the selfdriven philosophy of decentralised self-governance:

  • Board of Directors: Fiduciary oversight, regulatory interface, strategic approval. Each director holds a KERI AID with a vLEI credential.

  • Executive Team: CEO, CFO, CTO, CRO (Chief Risk Officer), CCO (Chief Compliance Officer). Operational authority delegated via ACDC role credentials.

  • Community Governance Council: Elected by customers via KERI-verified voting. Advisory role on product direction, fee structures, and community investment.

10.2 Team Design

Following the selfdriven Foundation’s model, team members have defined areas of focus with approximately 70% of their energy on their primary area and the remainder distributed across supporting areas. Key functional areas:

  • Banking Operations: Account management, transaction processing, lending operations

  • Risk and Compliance: Regulatory affairs, AML/CTF, prudential reporting

  • Technology: KERI infrastructure, banking platform, security, and API development

  • Engagement: Customer experience, community management, ecosystem partnerships

  • Enablement: Financial literacy, onboarding design, developer relations

10.3 Decentralised Operations

selfdriven.money embraces remote-first, globally distributed operations wherever regulation permits. Team coordination happens through KERI-authenticated communication channels. Performance is measured against verifiable outcomes, not presenteeism. The organisational structure is designed to be as sovereign as the identities it serves.

11. Conclusion

The selfdriven Foundation’s 8 Areas of Focus framework provides a comprehensive blueprint for building selfdriven.money as an organisation. Each area—Direction, Engagement, Enablement, Protocols, Sustainability, Processes, Accountability, and Organisational—maps directly onto the operational requirements of a regulated banking institution.

What makes selfdriven.money distinct is not any single feature. It is the coherence of the model: KERI identity infrastructure runs through every area of focus. Direction is set via verifiable governance. Engagement is built on cryptographic trust rather than marketing promises. Enablement empowers customers to verify rather than simply believe. Protocols provide the technical foundation. Sustainability is transparently attested. Processes are cryptographically auditable. Accountability is architecturally enforced. And the organisational structure embodies the sovereignty it offers to its customers.

selfdriven.money is not just a bank that uses new technology. It is a new kind of organisation—one that proves its operations rather than merely promising them. The 8 Areas of Focus framework ensures that this ambition is not aspirational rhetoric, but a structured, actionable, and accountable operating model.

selfdriven.money · Sovereign banking, architecturally.

https://actuate.selfdriven.community/framework/areas-of-focus