How KLM Works
PROGRAMMABLE KLM
Rules Travel With the Money. You Write Them, K.A.T.E. Enforces Them, OBSIGNIA Records Them.
Most money is blind. It goes wherever it is sent, and the rules about it live somewhere else: in a bank's terms, a card network's policy or a spreadsheet after the fact.
KLM is different. Every unit carries its own rules: where it came from, what it may be used for, who may move it and within what limits. The platform checks those rules on every movement, before any KLM moves, and writes the outcome to OBSIGNIA, the KAELUM integrity ledger.
The principle
K.A.T.E. governs the rails. You govern the spend.
Rules are set by the person whose KLM it is. K.A.T.E. applies them. Nothing that moves money happens without the payer's authority.
Rules Live Today
Enforced by the platform now, on every account.
Fixed Value
KLM is fixed at £0.20. No rule anywhere on the platform changes its value. It never appreciates and pays no return: it is for spending.
Origin-Aware Balances
Every unit knows where it came from. KLM that merchants and creators earn through sales can be redeemed for pounds, subject to the redemption fee and limits. KLM bought or received as a reward is for spending.
Spending uses spend-only KLM first, so earned KLM stays redeemable.
Agent Mandates
Give your K.A.T.E. agent scoped authority: which actions, a cap per action and per month, and an expiry date. Suspend or revoke it at any moment.
Every change is kept in a hash-chained evidence log. Sending, redeeming and topping up always come back to you.
Buy It When
Standing orders: tell K.A.T.E. to buy when an item is back in stock, or when its price after the merchant discount falls to your target.
When the condition is met, the purchase is prepared and waits for your approval. Nothing is paid without you.
Product Hunts
Describe what you want, with colour, size and a price cap. K.A.T.E. keeps searching registered merchants until there is an exact match, then tells you in the app and by email.
Spend Rules at Checkout
Every purchase applies the merchant's discount automatically: 6% minimum, and merchants can raise it. A 4.5% platform transaction fee applies, paid by the buyer. Merchants are not charged on payments they receive.
Payout Rules
Before any pounds leave KAELUM, a redemption is checked against its rules: account type, fee tier (1.8% for Verified accounts, 2.5% otherwise), minimum and maximum amounts, SENTINEL screening and the automatic-approval policy.
Anything outside the rules waits for a person.
Every Rule Leaves a Record
Completed payments, transfers, top-ups, refunds, redemptions and approval decisions are written to OBSIGNIA: hash-chained and independently timestamped, so anyone can check a record without trusting KAELUM.
Agreed, Not Yet Automatic
Recorded and agreed by every party today. The automatic part comes later.
Commerce Contracts
Record a commerce agreement in KLM between real KAELUM accounts. K.A.T.E. explains it in plain English and every party gives their agreement.
Contracts do not move KLM by themselves yet. When execution is added, it will only ever debit the paying party's own KLM, after SENTINEL screening, with an OBSIGNIA record of every payment.
Built, Switched Off Until Our Legal Opinion
These are built and tested but held behind switches. We will only turn them on once an independent legal opinion confirms they can be offered, or once they run under an authorised e-money partner.
Autonomous Buying
Your agent completing purchases inside your mandate without a tap from you. Today, every agent purchase needs your one-tap approval.
Agentic Receivables
Merchants receiving KLM early against money owed to them.
Purchase Protection
Cover on agent purchases, with claims handled by K.A.T.E.
Commerce Circles
Groups of participants pooling KLM towards shared purchases.
What KLM Will Never Be Programmed to Do
Some rules are about what KLM is not.
Appreciate or pay a return
KLM has a fixed value. It is not an investment and earns no interest or yield.
Move without your authority
No agent, contract or rule can spend, send or redeem your KLM unless you have authorised it.
Hold one person's money for another
No escrow between participants while KAELUM operates as a closed loop.
Be traded
KLM is not listed on any exchange and cannot be bought or sold between users as an asset.
Money That Knows the Rules
The full argument for programmable money, and why KAELUM built it into a commerce currency.
KLM is a closed-loop commerce currency, which we consider falls within the exclusion at regulation 3 of the Electronic Money Regulations 2011; an independent legal opinion confirming that view is being sought. It is not a crypto asset, security, deposit or investment. Only KLM earned through commerce by merchants and creators may be redeemed for pounds, subject to fees and limits. Features marked Built, Switched Off are not offered today.