RandX: Decentralizing the South African Rand through Blockchain

Abstract

Centralised digital identity management systems create single points of failure and weaken user control over sensitive data, particularly in financial services. We designed and built RandX, an ERC-20 token that gates mint, transfer, and burn operations to addresses with verifiable credentials. Requirements drawn from self-sovereign identity (SSI) and AML/KYC literature led to a modular architecture for identity, user management, token logic, and governance. Solidity contracts were implemented with a React/MetaMask dApp. End-to-end tests confirm verified users transact successfully while unverified attempts revert. Average gas costs were approximately 0.0008 ETH per token operation and 0.0014 ETH for identity verification. We note issuer centrality and propose multisig governance and zero-knowledge proofs as next steps.