JKSH AI - Your Smart Blockchain Assistant

JKSH AI is a smart financial assistant that simplifies blockchain transactions through conversations. No need to understand technical details, just say what you want to do and JKSH AI will do it.

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Inspiration

In Kenya, mobile money is not just essential, its critical but also fragile and expensive. During protests, the government has shut down banking services, cutting off millions. Even in normal times, fees for small transfers can reach upto 7%, with withdrawals costing up to 20%.

With over KSh 7.95 trillion (~$49B) moved via mobile money in 2023, it's clear we need a better system.

At the same time, 96% of internet users in Kenya use WhatsApp, a tool far more familiar than a normal crypto wallets.

That’s why we built JKSH AI: a smart assistant that makes blockchain as easy as texting. If you want to send money, just tell the AI, and it handles everything securely on Algorand, fast and at near-zero cost.

What it does

JKSH AI is a smart financial assistant, our first implementation runs on WhatsApp. You talk like you normally would. e.g: "Send 5 ALGO to +254712345678" "Top up my wallet" "Show me my balance"

JKSH AI handles all the blockchain complexity in the background using the Algorand blockchain. No apps, no high fees, no confusion, just a smooth, secure chat experience.

How we built it

WhatsApp Cloud API: Handles messaging and interactive Flows

JKSH financial AI agent: Understands user messages and performs financial actions

Algorand SDK + Node APIs: Signs and submits secure on-chain transactions

allo.info: Generates blockchain transaction links for real-time blockchain confirmation

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was time. We had limited time to build a full-featured, secure, and user-friendly blockchain assistant. To stay focused, we broke the system down into small, manageable components and tackled each piece step by step.

We also chose to build on WhatsApp because it's the most familiar and convenient platform for users in our target region. However, integrating advanced functionality within the limitations of WhatsApp’s infrastructure-like message formatting, response timing, and flow structure required careful planning and some creative workarounds which were time consuming

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • We enabled secure, on-chain Algorand transfers directly through WhatsApp
  • Supported both Algorand wallet addresses and international phone numbers as recipients
  • Transformed complex DeFi operations into simple, natural chat commands
  • Reduced friction and cost for accessing digital finance -no apps, no technical jargon These accomplishments brought us closer to our goal of making decentralized finance feel as simple and accessible as everyday messaging.

What we learned

We discovered how much impact resilience and cost-efficiency matter in finance, especially in fragile systems. Combining WhatsApp, AI, and the Algorand blockchain, we created something affordable, understandable, and ready for unpredictable environments.

What's next for JKSH AI - Your Smart Blockchain Assistant

  • Cross-border stablecoin transfers
  • Token staking & rewards
  • Offline transactions via USSD

Built With

  • algorand
  • allo.info
  • bolt
  • tensorflow
  • whatsapp
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Updates

Private user

Private user posted an update —

We’ve just released a more detailed walkthrough video of JKSH, our WhatsApp-based AI assistant built on Algorand.

This demo covers: – How to create a wallet – How to fund it with ALGO or JKSH – How to withdraw back to KES via M-Pesa – And how the entire process works behind the scenes

Our goal is to make blockchain accessible through a platform people already use - WhatsApp. No apps, no jargon, just chat-based advanced finance.

Watch the full walkthrough here: https://youtu.be/qX42mN4gt8k

We’d love your feedback or ideas on how to improve it before we launch in Kenya!

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