RandX: Decentralizing the South African Rand through Blockchain

Authors

Ndumiso Zondi, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Stacey Baror, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Sheunesu Makura, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Hein Venter, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Published in

IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2576-8581

ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.ZZHD9803

Publisher

IST-Africa Institute and IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd

Published in Ireland

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.

Keywords

Blockchain; stablecoin; self-sovereign identity; South African Rand; decentralization; decentralized finance

Cite this paper

N. Zondi, S. Baror, S. Makura and H. Venter (2026) "RandX: Decentralizing the South African Rand through Blockchain", IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings, Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham (Eds), IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2026, ISSN: 2576-8581, ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2, https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.ZZHD9803

Access Paper

Click here to access this paper

IST-Africa Community Members can download papers by logging into their existing account.

If you wish to become a member of IST-Africa Community, please register your profile and you will then receive login details which you can use to access the papers.

Access to papers in the IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings is for INDIVIDUAL USE only. Neither the Conference Proceedings (or individual double blind peer reviewed papers) are to be included in any public or institutional repository or processed in the context of any AI tool or large language model without prior written permission from the Publishers.

While the IST-Africa Institute and IIMC retain copyright of the Conference Proceedings, each author retains copyright to their individual paper. No paper or part thereof may be reproduced without the written permission of both the Conference Proceedings Publishers and appropriate author(s).