Keychat's avatar
Keychat 1 year ago
Users can mint ecash sats, ecash USD, ecash stamps, and more. Users would exchange Lightning Network sats for ecash sats, ecash USD, ecash stamps, etc. Users can mint 10 ecash stamps at the mint with 1 LN sat. These ecash stamps are specialized, and the mint does not allow exchanging back from ecash stamps to LN sats. For users, using ecash stamps rather than a subscription model can offer better privacy. The mint only commits to users being able to use these ecash stamps to pay for services at any time, such as relay services. The risk for users is that the relay service might stop before they use up their ecash stamps. Users can mint 1000 ecash sats at the mint with 1000 LN sats. They can enjoy more private payments with these 1000 ecash sats, and the transaction fees are very low. The mint earns a fee from these transactions. The mint commits to exchanging ecash sats back to LN sats on a 1:1 basis when users wish to convert their ecash sats balance back to LN sats. The risk for users is that the mint may not have enough LN sats to fulfill the redemption, or may refuse to redeem. Users can mint 7 ecash USD at the mint with 10000 LN sats. They can enjoy more private payments with these 7 ecash USD, and the transaction fees are very low; price stability might also be an advantage for some. The mint earns a fee from these transactions. The mint commits to exchanging the ecash USD balance back to LN sats at the current market rate when users wish to convert. The risk for users is that the mint may not have enough LN sats to fulfill the redemption, or may refuse to redeem.
Keychat's avatar Keychat
But what if relays issue their own specialized ecash stamps? Users would purchase these ecash stamps from the relay using Lightning Network sats. Isn't this similar to an App coin? It's inefficient for every app to issue its own specialized coin; we only need a universal currency: sats. Relays should accept ecash sats issued by as many mints as possible and blacklist bad mints. View quoted note →
View quoted note →

Replies (10)

NewBeliever's avatar
NewBeliever 1 year ago
Thanks for exploring these ideas outloud, I'm loving it. If I minted unbacked eUSD and then swapped them to a trusted mint, the vendor risks getting fake or debased eUSD right? Or inter-mint transfers only deal in true LN SATs to avoid this? Yes I think so. So a vendor would have to set a list of trusted eUSD mints that he's willing to accept parent from, right? There's no way to verify that 50 e$, received via email or however, is backed by real SATs right?
Keychat's avatar
Keychat 1 year ago
Your thinking is correct. As a user, if you receive an ecash payment, you can inform the sender which mints you accept ecash from. The exchange of ecash issued by two different mints is facilitated through the Lightning Network.
Keychat's avatar
Keychat 1 year ago
No, it’s not. For minting sats, minting USD, and minting stamps, the risk to the user is the same, which is why it was described repeatedly.