pailakapo on Nostr: I sent you a DM with an ecash token to show what it is. The mint knows the IP address ...

I sent you a DM with an ecash token to show what it is.

The mint knows the IP address of the redeemer, from what I gather, so there could be some log privacy leaks. outside of that, the mint just adds a signature when only the amount is visible to it.

In this case, there really is no "recipient," like when the Treasury prints a dollar, anyone can "redeem" it wherever it is accepted. In this case, it needs to go through a specific mint. So you can think about it like a "state" bank issuing their own currency in the 1800s in the US. The bank issues a note (IOU) redeemable for something (gold) that can only be traded for gold if brought back through the bank. They would check to see its not a forgery first, then issue the gold. This is a digital blinded transaction, so the mint doesn't see the user bringing it in for mint or melt.

You can also send a token P2PK, where the token is locked to a users private key. Instead of DM, I tried to send you a token on this note locked to your private key, but i couldn't get it to work. In that case, there is not a recipient per se, but you would need to know the private key of the pubkey its locked to to redeem this token.

Where does it go?
Unless its locked to a pubkey, its a race to the mint with the token. So if I sent you a token in this note, anyone reading it could redeem it. I could even redeem it back if I made it to the mint first. Its like a check that you could cancel. So I create a token from my wallet, text it to you. If someone looks over your shoulder and writes down the token, they could go redeem it. I could also give you a token, you give me a coffee, then I could walk out and redeem my own token. So the exchange of goods should not be done "offline," unless its locked to your private key. You should only give me my coffee when the mint has "redeemed" this token. But to answer the question, lets say I text you 100 sats. You redeem it. Then tomorrow I check my text messages, and the token is still there. Its worthless, but the string of text is still there.

I run a local cashu.me and the PWA version of that will be my favorite when the camera works to scan lightning invoices. Its fast, has all the features, and I like that its on my server as a PWA.

Right now I use eNuts, but ill switch when the camera works.

Calle or someone else can probably answer the questions better about how exactly the process works. I just know the basics.