Ecash
Ecash is a type of centralized digital currency that uses blind signatures to prevent the centralized controlling party (the mint) from knowing the balance of any particular user or from learning which users were involved in any transactions.
David Chaum invented blind signatures in 1983 and used them to describe the ideas behind ecash. In a typical ecash system, a user requests some number of tokens from a mint, usually after providing the mint with collateral such as bitcoins. The mint signs each token it returns to the user in such a way that the user can manipulate the signature to produce an equally valid signature that the mint can recognize as its own but which doesn’t identify which token it came from (unless the user tries submitting two signatures for the same token).
This allows Alice to receive some tokens from the mint, send a copy of those tokens to Bob, and Bob to redeem the tokens with the mint. If Alice deposited 1,000 sat with the mint for each token, a perfect mint would give Bob 1,000 sat for each token he redeemed. Later, if Alice tried to redeem one of the tokens she previously gave Bob, the mint would recognize the attempt to redeem the same token twice and reject Alice’s attempt.
Alice and Bob both need to trust the mint to store their money, provide them with legitimately signed tokens, and accept honest redemptions of tokens.
There are several implementations of ecash that focus on interoperability with Bitcoin payments.
Primary code and documentation
Optech newsletter and website mentions
2024
- Proposal to pay miners with ecash
- Sending and receiving ecash using LN and ZKCPs
- Discussion of the design of Cashu and other ecash systems
2023
2018
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