Home / SharedRail / SharedRail Specification
SharedRail
Global by Default.
SharedRail is an open-source, federated payment infrastructure designed to enable secure, encrypted, identity-based movement of value across currencies and borders. SharedRail is designed as modular public financial infrastructure rather than a centralized proprietary payment platform.
The system enables users and organizations to send and receive payments using verified email identities while supporting mandatory KYC, mandatory two-factor authentication, multi-currency settlement, instantaneous currency conversion, Request for Payment workflows, fraud prevention, and federation-hosted AI-assisted intent verification.
Design Principles
- Modular by design
- Federated by architecture
- Open by default
- Global by default
- Borderless payment infrastructure
- Identity-based payments
- Verified email payment addressing
- End-to-end encryption
- Mandatory KYC
- Mandatory two-factor authentication
- Human-directed payment decisions
- AI-assisted scam prevention
- Transparent and auditable operations
- Vendor-neutral infrastructure
- Protocol-first design
- Interoperable services
- Replaceable service providers
- Jurisdiction-aware compliance
- User-controlled financial activity
- Community-operated infrastructure
- No proprietary dependency requirements
Core Modules
SharedRail Core
The SharedRail Core provides the foundational payment orchestration and protocol services required by the network.
- Payment lifecycle management
- Transaction orchestration
- Payment state management
- Event processing
- Service coordination
- Module communication
- Protocol versioning
- Protocol compatibility
- Network service discovery
- Transaction routing
- Settlement coordination
- Error handling
- Retry management
- Idempotent transaction processing
- Real-time transaction status
- System health monitoring
- Audit event generation
- Configuration management
- Extensible module interfaces
Identity Module
The Identity Module provides identity-based addressing and verification for people and organizations participating in SharedRail.
- Verified email identities
- Email-based payment addressing
- Identity registration
- Identity verification
- Identity attestations
- Identity recovery
- Identity federation
- Public key association
- Identity status management
- Identity reputation information
- Organization identities
- Multiple verified addresses
- Identity ownership verification
- Privacy-preserving identity references
Authentication Module
The Authentication Module provides mandatory authentication controls for account access and payment authorization.
- Mandatory two-factor authentication
- Passkey authentication
- WebAuthn support
- Hardware security keys
- Biometric authentication where supported
- Trusted device management
- Device registration
- Session management
- Login notifications
- Authentication event logging
- Transaction authentication
- Payment authorization
- Authentication recovery
- Suspicious authentication alerts
KYC Module
The KYC Module provides identity verification capabilities while allowing verification providers to remain modular.
- Mandatory KYC workflows
- Identity document verification
- Identity verification status
- Verification expiration
- Verification history
- Organization verification
- Provider-independent verification interfaces
- Reverification workflows
- Jurisdiction-specific verification requirements
- Verification status sharing between authorized federation participants
- Privacy-preserving verification records
- Compliance audit records
Wallet Module
The Wallet Module provides user-facing management of balances, currencies, recipients, and payment activity.
- Multi-currency balances
- Currency accounts
- Payment history
- Recipient management
- Verified contacts
- Favorite recipients
- Spending limits
- Payment limits
- Wallet recovery
- Wallet backup
- Account statements
- Transaction search
- Transaction filtering
- Payment categories
- Payment notes
- Balance history
- Currency preferences
- Account activity timeline
Payment Module
The Payment Module provides the primary mechanism for transferring value between users and organizations.
- Person-to-person payments
- Business-to-person payments
- Business-to-business payments
- Email-to-email payments
- Cross-border payments
- Multi-currency payments
- Instant payment processing
- Payment authorization
- Transaction signing
- Payment confirmation
- Payment cancellation before settlement where supported
- Scheduled payments
- Future-dated payments
- Recurring payments
- Split payments
- Group payments
- Partial payments
- Payment references
- Payment notes
- QR code payments
- Payment links
- Digital receipts
- Cryptographically signed receipts
- Payment status tracking
Request for Payment Module
The Request for Payment Module provides structured payment requests between users and organizations.
- Payment requests
- Digital invoices
- Purchase requests
- Product payment requests
- Service payment requests
- Gift payment requests
- Donation requests
- Subscription requests
- Membership requests
- Escrow requests
- Installment requests
- Partial payment requests
- Multi-currency requests
- Automatic currency conversion
- Due dates
- Expiration dates
- Payment reminders
- Request acceptance
- Request rejection
- Request cancellation
- Counter-offers
- Digital signatures
- Invoice attachments
- Purchase order references
- Request status tracking
- Payment completion tracking
- Exportable payment records
Intent Verification Module
The Intent Verification Module provides federation-side AI assistance designed to help users recognize scams and confirm that a payment is being made intentionally.
- Federation-hosted AI processing
- Human intent verification
- Interactive payment questioning
- Scam awareness assistance
- Social engineering detection
- Suspicious payment pattern identification
- New recipient questioning
- Large payment questioning
- Urgency detection
- Product verification questions
- Service verification questions
- Gift verification questions
- Invoice verification questions
- Impersonation scam detection
- Investment scam awareness
- Romance scam awareness
- Charity scam awareness
- Elder fraud protection
- Payment context analysis
- Adaptive questioning
- Explainable recommendations
- User education
- Payment review prompts
- Suggested verification actions
- Optional payment cooling recommendations
- Configurable verification policies
- Replaceable AI engines
- Auditable decision-support logic
- Human-controlled final payment authorization
The Intent Verification Module provides assistance and recommendations. It does not independently authorize a payment or replace the user’s decision.
Security Module
The Security Module provides the cryptographic and security foundation for SharedRail.
- End-to-end encryption
- Encryption in transit
- Encryption at rest
- Forward secrecy
- Cryptographic signatures
- Transaction signing
- Public key management
- Secure key storage
- Key rotation
- Key recovery
- Device key management
- Certificate validation
- Secure service authentication
- Security event logging
- Tamper detection
- Cryptographic verification
- Secure session handling
Fraud Prevention Module
The Fraud Prevention Module provides configurable fraud analysis and protection.
- Transaction risk analysis
- Recipient risk analysis
- Payment velocity monitoring
- Duplicate payment detection
- Unusual payment detection
- New recipient monitoring
- Geographic anomaly detection
- Payment pattern analysis
- Account activity analysis
- Federation node reputation
- Recipient reputation
- Suspicious activity alerts
- Configurable risk thresholds
- Explainable risk indicators
- Optional payment delays
- Fraud investigation records
- False-positive review workflows
- Community-maintained fraud rules
Currency Exchange Module
The Currency Exchange Module provides currency conversion and foreign exchange routing.
- Multi-currency support
- Instant currency conversion
- Real-time exchange rates
- Exchange rate transparency
- Exchange fee transparency
- Multi-provider FX routing
- Liquidity provider selection
- Best-price routing
- Currency conversion before settlement
- Currency conversion during settlement
- Exchange history
- FX transaction records
- Provider comparison
- Liquidity availability
- Automatic settlement optimization
Settlement Module
The Settlement Module coordinates the movement and finalization of value between participating parties and federation nodes.
- Real-time settlement
- Multi-currency settlement
- Cross-border settlement
- Settlement confirmation
- Settlement state tracking
- Transaction reconciliation
- Settlement routing
- Settlement retries
- Settlement failure handling
- Atomic transaction workflows
- Signed settlement records
- Settlement audit trails
Federation Module
The Federation Module provides the distributed network infrastructure that allows independent operators to participate in SharedRail.
- Federation node operation
- Node discovery
- Node registration
- Node authentication
- Secure node communication
- Federation membership
- Node trust policies
- Node reputation
- Node health monitoring
- Node synchronization
- Payment routing between nodes
- Federation service discovery
- Federation policy management
- Public federations
- Private federations
- Hybrid federations
- Regional federations
- Federation interoperability
Compliance Module
The Compliance Module provides configurable regulatory functionality without embedding every jurisdiction’s requirements into the core payment system.
- Jurisdiction-aware compliance
- AML integration
- Sanctions screening
- Regulatory reporting
- Compliance policy evaluation
- Transaction monitoring
- Identity verification requirements
- Compliance status management
- Regulatory audit records
- Compliance reporting
- Regional policy support
- Configurable compliance rules
- Explainable compliance outcomes
- Compliance provider interfaces
Notification Module
The Notification Module provides communication services for payment and account events.
- Email notifications
- Push notifications
- SMS notifications
- In-app notifications
- Webhook notifications
- Payment confirmations
- Payment request notifications
- Settlement notifications
- Security notifications
- Authentication notifications
- Fraud alerts
- Intent verification prompts
- Payment reminders
- Configurable notification preferences
Audit Module
The Audit Module provides verifiable records of system and financial activity.
- Transaction audit records
- Authentication audit records
- Identity audit records
- KYC audit records
- Settlement audit records
- Compliance audit records
- Security event records
- Cryptographically signed records
- Immutable audit trails where supported
- Audit verification
- Exportable audit records
- Regulatory audit packages
- Transaction provenance
- Administrative activity records
Administration Module
The Administration Module provides management capabilities for users, organizations, and federation operators.
- User administration
- Organization administration
- Federation administration
- Node administration
- Role-based permissions
- Policy management
- Security configuration
- KYC configuration
- Compliance configuration
- Payment limits
- Currency configuration
- Service configuration
- Audit access
- System monitoring
- Backup management
- Disaster recovery management
- API management
- Module management
Developer Module
The Developer Module provides standardized interfaces for applications and services that integrate with SharedRail.
- Open APIs
- SDK interfaces
- Payment integration interfaces
- Identity integration interfaces
- KYC integration interfaces
- FX integration interfaces
- Compliance integration interfaces
- Notification interfaces
- Webhook interfaces
- Event subscriptions
- Plugin interfaces
- Module interfaces
- Protocol documentation
- API documentation
- Integration testing
- Reference implementations
Optional Plugin Modules
Banking Connector Plugin
- Bank account connectivity
- Bank transfer integration
- Account verification
- Balance synchronization
- Bank payment initiation
- Bank transaction reconciliation
Payment Rail Connector Plugin
- Regional payment networks
- National payment systems
- International payment networks
- Local settlement systems
- Alternative payment rails
- Payment rail routing
Identity Provider Plugin
- External identity providers
- Government identity systems
- Institutional identity systems
- Organization identity systems
- Additional identity verification services
KYC Provider Plugin
- External KYC providers
- Document verification providers
- Biometric verification providers
- Business verification providers
- Regional KYC services
FX Provider Plugin
- External exchange providers
- Liquidity providers
- Market rate providers
- Institutional FX providers
- Regional currency providers
Fraud Intelligence Plugin
- External fraud intelligence
- Community threat intelligence
- Fraud pattern feeds
- Scam databases
- Risk intelligence providers
AI Provider Plugin
- Alternative AI models
- Federation AI providers
- Specialized fraud models
- Localized language models
- Explainability engines
- AI evaluation services
Compliance Provider Plugin
- AML providers
- Sanctions providers
- Regulatory reporting services
- Jurisdiction-specific compliance services
- Transaction monitoring providers
Merchant Plugin
- Merchant accounts
- Online checkout
- Point-of-sale payments
- Payment links
- Digital receipts
- Refund workflows
- Merchant settlement
- Merchant reporting
Payroll Plugin
- Employee payment management
- Multi-currency payroll
- Cross-border payroll
- Scheduled payroll
- Contractor payments
- Payroll reporting
Escrow Plugin
- Escrow payment requests
- Conditional settlement
- Milestone payments
- Buyer confirmation
- Seller confirmation
- Dispute workflows
- Escrow release rules
Accounting Plugin
- Accounting integrations
- Transaction categorization
- Reconciliation
- Financial exports
- Invoice synchronization
- Tax reporting support
Specification Branding License (SBL)
Standard
- Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
- Copyleft enforced for network deployments
- Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/
Optional
- Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/sharedrail/
License & Notice Requirements
SharedRail is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.
Please note the following:
- All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
- Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to:
Roxanne Ardary and https://www.roxanneardary.com/. - SharedRail specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
- The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update
notice.md. - When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
- Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.
For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.
Notice – SharedRail
Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and https://www.roxanneardary.com/.
Contributors
This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.
- Roxanne Ardary, https://www.roxanneardary.com/ – June 23, 2026
Created the SharedRail repository and designed the open, federated, modular payment protocol featuring identity-based payments, encrypted multi-currency settlement, AI-assisted human intent verification, Request for Payment (RFP), and a federation-based architecture. - [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]
License – SharedRail
This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
Key Points:
- You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
- All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and https://www.roxanneardary.com/ as required under Section 7 of the license.
- The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.
For the full license text, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html.