BlackgradeSystems
Blackgrade Systems·Systems practice

Complex systems.
Built for trust.

I design and build financial infrastructure, regulated digital systems, AI products and platforms operating at scale.

Explore the systems See the portfolio
Fig 00Transaction path
IdentityWho
RulesMay it
LedgerRecord
ControlEvidence
SettlementFinal

Components

AccountsWalletsTransactionsBalancesProofsData
Conceptual model. A single movement of value crosses identity, rules, the ledger, control and settlement before it is final.
Electronic moneyPaymentsAIRegulationCryptographyDigital platforms

About the work

Technology becomes interesting when failure is not an option.

Money. Identity. Regulation. Privacy. Trust. These are systems where product decisions become architectural decisions, and architectural decisions have real-world consequences.

Blackgrade Systems documents the products, infrastructure and research behind that work: fintech, AI, cryptography and digital platforms.

Practice
Financial infrastructure, regulated systems, AI
Based
Paris, France
Contact
hakim@blackgradesystems.com

01 Selected systems

Four systems, built not described

Each one is a system where the technology alone was never the hard part.

All systems

System 01 Financial infrastructure

Poto

Building an electronic money system.

Contributed to the design and construction of the information systems behind Poto, an electronic money product operated inside a regulated environment: accounts, wallets, balances, transaction rules, reconciliation, control and traceability.

Electronic money

Design and implementation of a system able to hold electronic money and account for its movements.

Financial infrastructure

Accounts, wallets, transactions, rules, balances, reconciliation, control and traceability.

Information system

The information system that lets the operation actually run day to day.

ACPR

Contributed to the technical and operational work supporting the ACPR authorization process and its implementation.

Compliance tooling

Internal tools for controls, workflows, verifications, auditability, follow-up and operations.

Regulatory reporting

Structuring and automating the data behind the different regulatory reports.

EMEPAYMENTSLEDGERACPRCOMPLIANCEREPORTING
Fig 01Electronic money system
FiatReceived
SafeguardingSegregated
EmissionE-money
PotoSystem
WalletHolder
TransactionRules applied
Merchant / beneficiarySettled

Beside the path

Rule engineComplianceReconciliationReporting
Public conceptualisation of the problem. No internal architecture, process or security detail is represented.

System 02 Digital platform / scale

National passenger transport platform

Turning search demand into a national marketplace.

A national digital platform in passenger road transport: SEO architecture, quote generation, qualification, matching and automated distribution of demand to providers.

Tens of millions* Euros of quote demand per year

Quote demand is the value of quote requests generated by the platform. It is not revenue and is never presented as revenue. The order of magnitude is given; the exact figure is not published.

SEOMARKETPLACELEAD GENERATIONAUTOMATIONTRANSPORTSCALE
Fig 02Demand to marketplace
IntentRouteVehicle
SearchNational
LandingTemplated
RequestQuote
QualificationScored
MatchingEngine
ProviderAnswer

Mechanics

SEO architectureQualificationMatchingDistribution
Search demand is captured, qualified and routed. The metric published on this site is quote demand, not revenue.

System 03 R&D / cryptography

Private electronic voting

Exploring cryptography for verifiable and privacy-preserving voting.

Joint research on eligibility, ballot secrecy, unlinkability, duplicate-participation prevention and public verifiability. The cryptographic construction is a collaborator’s design; this site contributes the systems reading and the operational questions around it.

Joint research, and whose design it is The cryptographic construction is a collaborator's work, not mine. Nothing here is a certified or deployed voting system, and FCMP++ is discussed as a cryptographic construction rather than as a voting protocol.
CRYPTOGRAPHYPRIVACYFCMP++VOTINGIDENTITYVERIFIABILITY
Fig 03Privacy-preserving ballot
Eligible set
Membership proofAnonymous
Private ballotSealed
VerificationPublic
TallyAuditable

Properties studied

EligibilityBallot secrecyUnlinkabilityNo double voteVerifiabilityAuditability
Research model. FCMP++ is studied as a cryptographic construction, not as a voting protocol.

System 04 AI / regulated systems

AI for regulated operations

Turning rules into executable systems.

Rules as data, data as controls, controls as evidence. LLMs and agents applied to compliance work, documentation, document analysis and regulatory reporting inside regulated companies.

Regulation should become executable.

AI ACTLLMAGENTSGOVERNANCECONTROLEVIDENCE
Fig 04Regulation as an executable system
RegulationText
RuleData
DataSource
ControlExecuted
AIAssisted
EvidenceAuditable

Governance

AI ActModel scopeHuman reviewTraceability
A written obligation becomes a rule, a rule becomes a control, and a control produces evidence that can be inspected.

02 Fields of work

Where the work sits

Five fields that keep meeting each other: a payment rule is a compliance control, a compliance control is a data model, a data model is a product decision.

Expertise index

Financial infrastructure

The components a transactional system needs before a product can exist on top of it.

  • Electronic money
  • Payment systems
  • Ledger architecture
  • Wallets
  • Reconciliation
  • Transaction systems

Regulation

Regulation read as a specification, not as a document to file after launch.

  • EME
  • ACPR
  • Compliance engineering
  • Regulatory reporting
  • Internal control

Artificial intelligence

AI put to work where the output has to be checkable by someone who did not write it.

  • LLMs
  • Agents
  • AI workflows
  • AI governance
  • EU AI Act
  • Automation

Trust systems

Systems where the guarantee has to survive the operator, not depend on it.

  • Cryptography
  • Privacy
  • Digital identity
  • Electronic voting
  • Verifiability

Digital platforms

Acquisition and distribution treated as engineering problems with measurable throughput.

  • Marketplaces
  • SEO at scale
  • Lead generation
  • Conversion systems
  • Automation
  • Demand generation

Blackgrade principle 01

Regulation is not a layer. It is architecture.

In regulated systems, compliance cannot live inside a PDF while the product lives somewhere else.

  • 01Rules should become data.
  • 02Data should become controls.
  • 03Controls should produce evidence.
  • 04And the whole system should remain understandable, auditable and operational.

Blackgrade principle 02

Trust is a systems problem.

Whether moving money, casting a vote or operating an AI system, trust cannot depend on interface design alone.

It has to exist in the architecture.

03 Experience

Where the work was done

Roles and dates are published only once they are established. Where one is not, the entry stops at the company and the field.

Full experience

Mon Ami Poto

Fintech / electronic money.

Free

Telecommunications / technology.

Since 2018

Faraday ITS

Software / digital systems. Co-founder & President. The company builds and operates digital platforms, including locationminibus.fr.

Whevo

Digital ventures.

ShoppyFood

SaaS / foodtech.

Passenger transport platform

locationminibus.fr, a national group-transport booking platform.

04 Field notes

Notes from inside the systems

Written by the person who built the thing. Not a content programme.

All notes

Electronic money

Building an electronic money system

What has to exist before a single unit of electronic money can move.

 Field note
Regulation

What actually happens inside an electronic money institution

Emission, safeguarding, control and reporting: the operating loop behind the licence.

 Field note
Ledger

Designing a ledger for electronic money

Balances are a consequence, not a field you update.

 Field note
Compliance

Compliance as software

Turning obligations into data, controls and evidence a machine can produce.

 Field note
ACPR

What technology teams misunderstand about authorisation

The technical work does not stop at the licence. It starts being audited there.

 Field note
Reporting

Automating regulatory reporting

Structure the data once, and every report becomes a projection of it.

 Field note
Portrait

05 About the author

Systems builder. Fintech, AI, cryptography, digital platforms.

I build digital systems where technology, regulation and trust have to hold together at the same time.

That work spans electronic money and payment infrastructure, compliance tooling and regulatory reporting, artificial intelligence applied inside controlled environments, digital platforms at national scale, and research on privacy-preserving cryptography.

At Mon Ami Poto I contributed to the design and construction of the information systems behind Poto, an electronic money product, and to the technical and operational work surrounding an electronic money institution under ACPR supervision.

Alongside that, I build and operate a portfolio of digital platforms at national scale with AlphaOscar, including a passenger transport marketplace carrying tens of millions of euros of annual quote demand. Those are joint work, not a solo record.

I contribute to research on privacy-preserving electronic voting as well. The cryptographic construction there is a collaborator’s design rather than mine, and the credit for it is theirs; what I bring is the systems reading of it.

The through line: complex systems become valuable when the engineering, the operation, the regulation and the trust model are designed together rather than in sequence.

06 Proof of work

Proof, not claims

Every entry answers the same five questions: what was built, where, what the role was, what problem it solved, and whether it can be verified. Links are added only where a public source exists.

Electronic money product

Poto

Information systems, compliance tooling, regulatory reporting.

 Not public
Company

Mon Ami Poto

Electronic money institution operating under ACPR supervision.

 Not public
Company

Free

Telecommunications and technology.

 Not public
Company

Faraday ITS

Software company (Paris, 2018). Builds and operates digital platforms.

 societe.com
Company

Whevo

Digital ventures.

 Not public
Company

ShoppyFood

SaaS / foodtech.

 Not public
Digital platform

Passenger transport platform

National quote-demand marketplace.

 Minibus hire with driver
Research

Secure voting research

Privacy-preserving cryptography for electronic voting.

 Not public

07 Contact

Building something difficult?

Fintech, regulated infrastructure, AI, cryptography or complex digital platforms.

hakim@blackgradesystems.com