Introducing Finternet Labs: Building the Foundations for a New Financial Internet
Meet the mission-driven vehicle turning the Finternet vision into global digital infrastructure.
Across the globe over 8 billion people and 300 million businesses are living in a world of financial limits. Not because they lack ambition or ideas, but because the infrastructure that underpins economic opportunity is fragmented, outdated and closed.
Most new use cases from lending and insurance to trade, climate finance and public services require costly, bespoke infrastructure that can’t keep up with evolving needs. It's like building a new road for every car.
This is where the concept of the Finternet offers a radically different path: a user-centric, unified and universal infrastructure for value exchange — designed to work more like the internet. First introduced through a joint working paper1 published by the Bank for International Settlements and expanded in a companion technical architecture2, the Finternet outlines a framework for financial systems to be programmable, verifiable and interoperable by default. It aims to enable seamless participation across sectors, institutions and borders, placing individuals and businesses at the center of their financial lives.
Since its introduction, the idea has gained growing momentum among regulators, technologists and institutions around the world. But realizing it demands more than strong architecture. It requires deep coordination across sectors, geographies and disciplines — and a dedicated, mission-driven vehicle to actively build and drive its adoption.
That’s where Finternet Labs comes in.
Meet Finternet Labs: A Mission-Driven Vehicle for Global Digital Infrastructure
Finternet Labs is the mission-driven initiative established to bring the Finternet to life. Operating under the umbrella of the Networks for Humanity Foundation (NHF), an international non-profit initiative advancing open, trusted digital infrastructure for global public benefit, the Labs are building the technical foundation, institutional partnerships, pilot ecosystem and vibrant community needed to scale verifiable, programmable financial infrastructure around the world.
Siddharth Shetty, a co-creator of the Finternet and a key architect behind several of India’s foundational Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) platforms, will lead the Labs as CEO. Under his leadership, the Labs are designed to function as a network of globally distributed teams with initial entities in India, the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. Each location supports a combination of research, engineering, partnerships and pilot execution, tailored to regional needs and regulatory environments.
Finternet Labs is driving tangible progress on multiple fronts to bring the Finternet to life. This includes:
Building Core Infrastructure: We are developing foundational elements like the Universal Tokenization System (UNITS) for digital asset lifecycle management and the Unified Interledger Protocol (UILP) for seamless transactions between diverse ledgers.
Developing Open Tools & Sandboxes: To foster adoption, Finternet Labs is creating production-ready infrastructure, protocols, and tools to support the entire software development lifecycle for various stakeholders. This includes dedicated sandboxes for partner use cases.
Collaborating on Policy & Compliance: We are actively engaged with regulators and institutions to co-design progressive policy and compliance frameworks, exploring "rules-as-code" and advocating for global collaboration of regulations.
Launching Sectoral Pilots: We are executing real-world pilots in diverse areas such as identity, finance, climate and trade, demonstrating how the Finternet solves tangible economic and societal problems.
Convening a Global Community: We are building a global community of developers, institutions and contributors to collaboratively shape and evolve the Finternet's future.
Finternet Labs Pilots in Action
The Labs has begun implementation through a portfolio of real-world pilots. These initiatives showcase how the core vision can solve tangible economic and societal problems, significantly boosting adoption and practical utility. Here is a snapshot of some of these pilots
GLEIF Digital Identity Pilot (Global): This pilot integrates the verified Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) to enhance global trust and efficiency in financial ecosystems through streamlined Know Your Customer/Business (KYC/KYB) processes.
E-Liability Tokenization Pilot (Global): Implementing tokenized carbon emissions accounting with real-time transparency, this pilot utilizes scientifically validated methods from the E-Liability Institute.
ADB Decentralized Identity Pilot (APAC): In collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, this pilot establishes secure, decentralized digital identity infrastructure, facilitating seamless cross-border verifications.
Cross-Border Remittances (Stables↔RTP): Reducing costs for sending money across borders using decentralized identifiers and DLT.
The Labs are designed to be intentionally lean, with core engineering and leadership teams supported by a growing network of volunteer contributors and ecosystem partners. This is more than an engineering effort. It is a growing movement of people and institutions coming together to build for the real world. It aims to function as an open, modular environment where protocol design, developer collaboration, policy experimentation and institutional engagement can all happen in parallel. This structure is what will allow the Finternet to evolve, adapt and scale over the next 5 to 10 years.
To support adoption and experimentation, Finternet Labs is building open developer sandboxes, reference implementations and certification pathways. These resources are designed to help others build, test and deploy use cases on Finternet infrastructure.
And this is where you come in. Finternet Labs is open to anyone who believes in building digital infrastructure as a public good:
Developers can contribute to core protocols, tooling and applications
Policymakers can help shape standards, rules-as-code and compliance frameworks
Institutions can co-create pilots and test real-world implementations
Researchers can explore governance models, network effects and systems design
We’re cultivating a vibrant contributor community on Discord, where builders and thinkers from around the world are already sharing insights, testing ideas and advancing the architecture. You can explore early-stage code and documentation on the Finternet GitHub, join upcoming community events, and stay tuned for job postings, calls for participation, and pilot opportunities launching in the months ahead. Also stay tuned for the launch of a new Finternet community portal – your central hub for all community engagement, resources and member access. You'll hear from us soon!
Whether you are a fintech innovator, a regulator, a student or a systems architect, there is a place for you in this journey. If you’d like to contribute, you can register your interest here to join as a volunteer. Visit finternetlab.io to get started!
See “The Finternet: The Financial System for the Future” by Nandan Nilekani and Agustín Carstens, Bank for International Settlements (2024)
See “Finternet: Technology Vision and Architecture” by Nandan Nilekani, Pramod Varma and Siddharth Shetty.