01 — open-connect
Open Connect
The first PATH network. A closed directory for West African operators. It is not the protocol.
01 — Identity
What this club is
Open Connect is the first club to run a PATH directory. The formats it speaks are public; the index it holds is not. Membership is a contract, with a rulebook, an audit right, and a power of exclusion — the same split the card networks settled decades ago.
SONAR is central: the network answers which member holds a key. Hashing is server-side, which means the network sees the identifiers being searched. That is declared here because a prospective member has a right to know before joining, and to refuse.
Goldrail is the founding operator. Other seats are open to institutions that accept the rulebook. PATH does not admit them; Open Connect does.
02 — Datasheet
Declared terms
A network chooses these. The protocol requires that they be public before anyone joins.
- Legal name
- Open Connect
- Slug
- open-connect
- Jurisdiction
- SN
- Admitted
- 2026-01-15
- Sonar
- central
- Holder confirmation
- required
- Sonar access
- member_credential
- Hashing
- server_side
- Hash function
- argon2id
- Search log retention
- 30 days
- Rulebook
- 1.0
- Address profiles
- directory · relationship
03 — Discovery
The public document
Unauthenticated, always. Anyone considering membership has to read it before there is a relationship to authenticate.
04 — Finder
What a member is consenting to
central
The network holds the index and answers. It sees the searches.
server_side
The hash protects the database, not members from the network. Identifiers being searched are visible to the club.
member credential
Directory queries require a member credential. Reciprocity is enforceable.
required
What a destination accepts is answered by the holder. The directory does not speak for its members on capability.
Coverage
Where this index reaches
- phone +221
- phone +225
- phone +226
- phone +227
- phone +228
- phone +229
- reg SN
- reg CI
- reg BF
- reg NE
- reg TG
- reg BJ
Members
Who sits in the club
—
Open. Admission is decided by Open Connect, not by PATH.
—
Open. Reciprocity, contract and audit required.
- 01PATH-CORE.DiscoveryPATH-CORE
- 02PATH-ID.CorePATH-ID
- 03PATH-ADDR.FormatPATH-ADDR
- 04PATH-ADDR.StandingPATH-ADDR
- 05PATH-REQ.LinkPATH-REQ
- 06PATH-REQ.PayerPATH-REQ
- 07PATH-REQ.CheckoutPATH-REQ
- 08PATH-FINDER.RelationshipPATH-FINDER
- 09PATH-FINDER.DirectoryPATH-FINDER
- 10PATH-INTEROP.ReadPATH-INTEROP
- 11PATH-INTEROP.IssuePATH-INTEROP
- 12PATH-INTEROP.PayPATH-INTEROP
- 13PATH-SETTLE.ReceiptsPATH-SETTLE