Gradido account: Technical architecture, special features and current status

The Gradido account is more than just a digital account - it is the technical heart of a new monetary system that focuses on people, community and nature. The combination of community server, federation between the communities and the Hedera hashgraph as an immutable anchor creates an architecture that cannot be mapped as a ready-made blockchain „off the shelf“. This article explains why we opted for precisely this solution - and what is already up and running.

1. the Gradido account: Conceptual basics

The Gradido system is based on the concept of Natural economy of life, which has been developed by Bernd Hückstädt and Margret Baier at the Gradido Academy for Economic Bionics since 2000. The model provides for three equivalent money creations of 1,000 gradido (GDD) per person per month: one Active Basic Income (AGE) for public welfare contributions, a Public budget for state benefits and a Compensation and Environment Fund (AUF) for nature and the environment.

Currently, only the first money creation is productively implemented: Each participant can receive 20 GDD per hour worked for the community, up to a maximum of 50 hours per month - i.e. up to 1,000 GDD. The roadmap envisages the second and third money creation for 2027.

2 Why not a standard blockchain?

2.1 A money supply that grows with the people

If you take a closer look at Bitcoin or Ethereum, you quickly realize that these systems are built in exactly the opposite way to Gradido. With Bitcoin, the total amount is written into the algorithm - up to 21 million coins, that's it. The money supply is fixed, the value fluctuates on the market.

With Gradido, it is exactly the opposite: a fixed maximum amount is created per person and month - if the communities grow, the amount of money grows proportionally. The aim is that the value of a GDD remains stable, while the amount of money follows the number of participants. This is not a question of detail, but the economic basis of the entire system - and it does not fit any existing blockchain without fundamental restructuring.

2.2 Transience to the second

There is also a second special feature: the transience of 50 % per year, continuously and to the second. An account balance becomes smaller even if no transaction takes place - like an apple that ripens and decays over time. A conventional blockchain is essentially like a public ledger in which you can only write something; it has no mechanism that allows account balances to shrink „by themselves“. In a community server, on the other hand, this is simple: the account balance is calculated at the moment of the request, without additional energy consumption.

2.3 Trust that arises from genuine encounters

Bitcoin and similar systems manage without human trust because they base everything on mathematical proof. Gradido deliberately reverses this principle: Trust is the design. People know people, and moderators confirm that contributions to the common good have actually been made. This can be mapped much more naturally in a flexible, socially designed architecture than in a rigid blockchain construct.

A separate „Bitcoin fork“ would also be conceivable in theory, but in practice it would be a major project in its own right - with its own consensus, its own mining structure and its own maintenance. Not a realistic path for a comparatively small team.

3. the Gradido architecture: three building blocks that work together

3.1 Community server: the heart of every community

At the center of every Gradido community is a Community server. It uses a relational database as storage. This is where the real Gradido world happens: accounts are managed, bookings are recorded, perishability is calculated, moderators check contributions for the common good.

3.2 Federation: Communities that understand each other

With Gradido 2.0, decentralized community servers have become a reality. Each community can operate its own server; the source code is open source and available on GitHub. To ensure that the servers are not isolated from each other, we have created a Federation a direct, encrypted connection between the servers. It finds its counterparts without a central point of contact and protects the data exchange in a functionally comparable way to HTTPS, but deliberately independently of central certification authorities.

The Gradido circles - an integrated communication platform with manageable groups and their moderators - have been productive since June 2024. Cross-community transactions via link are expected to go live in May 2026.

3.3 Hedera Hashgraph: the immutable anchor

Hedera Hashgraph (or Hiero as an open source version under the Linux Foundation) is a distributed ledger technology of the latest generation: a booking reaches finality in 3-5 seconds, the energy consumption is around one ten millionth of a Bitcoin transaction, and the underlying consensus (aBFT) is considered the highest security standard for distributed systems.

At Gradido we use Hedera as tamper-resistant anchor Each transaction is also transferred to the hashgraph with encrypted text - like a public, tamper-proof cash book in which every movement is entered in a unique, globally standardized sequence. Once entered, it can no longer be changed.

To turn this cash book into a usable safety net, there is the Gradido Node ServerIt receives the Hedera messages, saves them and checks them for consistency. The Inspector is the frontend for this - anyone who wants to know what has actually been entered on the hashgraph can view it there. The transfer of current bookings has been running on an experimental basis since March 2026.

4. transience that counts the same everywhere

Transience follows a mathematical formula - simple in itself. The difficulty lies in the detail: different programming languages and operating systems calculate numbers slightly differently, and over many postings these subtle differences add up to visible differences.

To ensure that everyone around the world sees the same account balance, we have summarized the calculation in a own, portable C library implemented. It uses only integer calculation types, the results of which are guaranteed to be identical regardless of the platform, and can be integrated into all relevant programming languages. This is exactly what the financial industry has been using for decades for critical calculations.

5. current development status (May 2026)

Conclusion

The Gradido account is a technically sophisticated project that is unique in its requirements and has rightly developed a customized architecture instead of adapting an existing blockchain. The decision in favor of a hybrid solution - community server for the Gradido logic, federation for the direct connection of the communities and Hedera Hashgraph as an immutable anchor - is technically sound and consistent. The project is at an advanced stage of development and has reached significant milestones in the last two years.