Introducing Halo Protocol on Stacks
We are excited to announce the launch of Halo Protocol, a decentralized lending circle platform built on the Stacks blockchain. Halo brings the centuries-old tradition of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) on-chain, enabling anyone to build a verifiable credit score through community participation.
An estimated 2 billion adults worldwide lack access to formal financial services. Traditional credit scoring systems create a catch-22: you need credit to build credit. Halo Protocol breaks this cycle by allowing participants to establish creditworthiness through transparent, on-chain contribution records in community lending circles.
How It Works
Halo Protocol operates through lending circles—groups of participants who contribute a fixed amount of tokens each round. In every round, one member receives the pooled funds. By the time the circle completes, every participant has both saved and borrowed, and their contribution history is permanently recorded on the Stacks blockchain.
Each participant accumulates a credit score from 300 to 850, based on five transparent factors: payment history (35%), circle completion (25%), account age (15%), utilization (15%), and diversity (10%). Unlike traditional credit bureaus, our scoring algorithm is fully auditable in the smart contract source code.
Built on Bitcoin Security
Halo Protocol is built on Stacks, a Layer 2 blockchain that settles every transaction on Bitcoin through Proof of Transfer. This means your circle contributions, payouts, and credit score updates are secured by Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus. All protocol logic is written in Clarity, a decidable smart contract language that prevents reentrancy attacks and allows complete static analysis.
What We Have Built
The initial release includes 8 Clarity smart contracts covering identity management, credit scoring, token vaults, lending circles, and sBTC staking. The full-stack application features a Next.js 14 backend with 15 API routes, a React frontend with wallet integration for Leather and Xverse, and a comprehensive test suite with 412 tests across all layers.
Testnet Launch
Halo Protocol is now live on Stacks testnet. We are inviting 30–50 early participants to create circles, make contributions, and build credit scores using testnet tokens. The faucet provides 1,000 hUSD and 0.01 sBTC per claim, with a 24-hour cooldown between requests.
What Comes Next
Following the testnet phase, we will pursue a third-party security audit of all smart contracts, resolve any findings, and prepare for mainnet deployment. Longer term, we are working on cross-protocol credit score portability, DeFi lending market integrations, governance mechanisms, and a mobile application to bring decentralized credit building to the widest possible audience.