{
    "meta": {
        "title": "D-Central — Bitcoin eCash Implementation Comparison (Cashu vs Fedimint)",
        "description": "A vendor-neutral comparison of 9 Bitcoin Chaumian eCash implementations — Cashu (single-mint) vs Fedimint (M-of-N federation) and their mints, wallets and apps — scored on trust model, guardian decentralization, Lightning gateway, privacy, backup/recovery, P2PK/HTLC and maturity, with the blunt custodial caveat stated up front.",
        "generated": "2026-07-18T17:13:49+00:00",
        "version": "1.0",
        "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
        "license_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "source": "https://d-central.tech/bitcoin-ecash-comparison/",
        "method": "Self-sovereignty-first framing: eCash is CUSTODIAL and this comparison says so plainly. The load-bearing axes are the trust model (who can steal the bitcoin) and guardian decentralization (single mint = one operator can rug; Fedimint = M-of-N federation, a colluding quorum can still rug). The backup/recovery column flags that lost bearer tokens are usually unrecoverable and that seed restore is conditional (seed created first + mint online). Verified July 2026 against project docs, repos and specs (NUT specs, Fedimint docs).",
        "provenance": "Cashu NUT specs + cashubtc repos, Fedimint core docs + repos, Fedi announcements, wallet project docs. Custodial risk stated bluntly per a self-sovereignty-first stance.",
        "disclaimer": "🔴 eCash is NOT self-custody. You hold bearer IOUs; a mint operator (Cashu) or federation of guardians (Fedimint) holds the actual bitcoin and can lose, steal or be compelled to freeze it, and lost bearer tokens are usually gone for good. Use eCash for small spending amounts only; keep savings in self-custody (cold storage or Lightning you control). Not financial advice."
    },
    "rows": [
        {
            "name": "Fedimint",
            "category": "protocol",
            "custodial": "custodial (federated)",
            "trust_model": "Custody is SPLIT across a federation of guardians under M-of-N Byzantine-fault-tolerant consensus (typically ~3f+1 guardians tolerating f faulty; stealing needs a threshold quorum, commonly >2/3, to actively collude). No single guardian can steal or censor alone — but it is still NOT self-custody: a colluding quorum CAN rug, guaranteed only by the guardians' real-world trust, not by code.",
            "guardians": "Federated M-of-N — multiple independent guardians must reach a signing threshold. A 1-guardian 'federation' is just Cashu with extra steps; security scales with how many truly-independent guardians it has.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes, via Lightning Gateways (separate actors bridging federation eCash to Lightning). 2026 work added BOLT12 send/receive + gateway mnemonic recovery.",
            "privacy": "Chaumian eCash inside the federation: guardians cannot link withdrawals to deposits or see who holds notes. Guardians DO see aggregate reserves + on-chain peg-in/out; the gateway sees LN routing metadata.",
            "recovery": "Best-in-class among eCash: 12/24-word seed deterministically regenerates secrets, and encrypted backups can be stored with guardians so a quorum assists restore after device loss. Still requires the federation to be alive.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Lightning HTLC via the gateway for LN interop; general P2PK-locked bearer notes are not the core UX (unlike Cashu NUT-11). Module system extensible; parity detail unverified.",
            "open_source": "MIT",
            "maturity": "production",
            "status_2026": "Mainnet federations live and growing; guardians self-publish identity via Pkarr DNS; gatewayd memory slashed (~1.6 GB → <200 MB). Positioned for community-scale custody, not global money.",
            "grade": "A",
            "notes": "The federated M-of-N model: meaningfully harder to rug than a single mint, but a colluding guardian quorum still can — trust is distributed, not eliminated."
        },
        {
            "name": "Fedi",
            "category": "app",
            "custodial": "custodial (federated)",
            "trust_model": "Custodial via the underlying Fedimint federation — M-of-N guardians hold the bitcoin. Fedi the company does not custody your funds; your community's guardians do. Fedi states plainly the ONLY guarantee against guardian fraud is real-world offline trust, not code.",
            "guardians": "Federated M-of-N (inherits Fedimint). Decentralization depends entirely on how independent the specific community's guardians are.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — consumer app: Lightning send/receive over Fedimint gateways + on-chain peg-in/out, chat and community 'super-app' modules.",
            "privacy": "Inherits Fedimint Chaumian privacy vs guardians; app-level and chat metadata are additional surfaces.",
            "recovery": "Seed-phrase backup + encrypted backups stored with guardians so a quorum assists recovery after device loss — one of the more forgiving recovery stories, still federation-dependent.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Inherits Fedimint's LN/HTLC gateway interop; not marketed as a P2PK note-locking wallet. Detail unverified.",
            "open_source": "AGPL-3.0 (full stack open-sourced 3 Jan 2026, the Bitcoin genesis anniversary)",
            "maturity": "production",
            "status_2026": "Community super-app (wallet + chat + mini-apps) on Fedimint; now fully AGPL. Aimed at real-world communities doing community custody.",
            "grade": "A",
            "notes": "Packages community custody with a friendly UX, but it is OTHER PEOPLE holding your bitcoin — safer than a single mint only to the exact degree your guardians are trustworthy and independent."
        },
        {
            "name": "Cashu",
            "category": "protocol",
            "custodial": "custodial (single mint)",
            "trust_model": "🔴 CUSTODIAL, single-operator. The mint operator holds ALL the backing bitcoin and can steal 100% of it at any time — the protocol has ZERO technical safeguard against the operator rugging or vanishing. Chaumian blinding protects your privacy, not your funds.",
            "guardians": "Single mint operator. ONE entity holds custody and can rug or censor unilaterally — no federation, no M-of-N, no quorum.",
            "ln_gateway": "Native. Mint (NUT-04) issues tokens against a paid Lightning invoice; melt (NUT-05) burns tokens and pays out over Lightning. The mint IS the Lightning on/off-ramp.",
            "privacy": "Strong vs the mint: blind signatures mean it cannot link a withdrawal/spend to the original deposit, nor see who holds or transfers tokens. BUT the mint sees total minted supply, all its Lightning gateway invoices, and your IP unless you use Tor.",
            "recovery": "🔴 Tokens are bearer secrets on-device. Deterministic seed restore (NUT-13) exists but ONLY if the seed was created BEFORE the eCash, AND needs the mint online + cooperating. Lose the device with no prior seed, or the mint disappears, and the money is gone permanently.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Yes, both — NUT-11 P2PK (lock to a pubkey, with locktime + n-of-m multisig + refund keys) and NUT-14 HTLC (atomic swaps). Tightened P2PK/HTLC rules were in flight (PR #315, Nov 2025) — merge status unverified.",
            "open_source": "MIT",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Active protocol under cashubtc; NUT spec set expanding; widely deployed across many independent mints and wallets. Explicitly a spend-money tool, not a savings vault.",
            "grade": "A",
            "notes": "The single-mint model: simplest and HIGHEST rug risk. You are lending bitcoin to one operator for privacy and instant/cheap payments — not holding it."
        },
        {
            "name": "Nutshell",
            "category": "mint",
            "custodial": "custodial (single mint)",
            "trust_model": "Custodial single-operator (a Cashu mint). Whoever runs the Nutshell instance holds all backing bitcoin and can steal it. The software does not remove custodial trust — it implements it.",
            "guardians": "Single operator — no federation; one admin controls the funds and the Lightning backend.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — pluggable Lightning backends (LND, CLN, LNbits, others) drive mint/melt.",
            "privacy": "Same Chaumian guarantees as the Cashu protocol; can see aggregate supply + its own gateway traffic.",
            "recovery": "NUT-13 deterministic secrets (landed v0.13). Operators must independently back up the mint's keys/DB or user funds are unrecoverable; user recovery needs this mint online.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Yes — reference implementation of NUT-11 P2PK + NUT-14 HTLC; ~v0.20 (early 2026) reported improved validation (version unverified).",
            "open_source": "MIT",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "The canonical Python reference mint+wallet for Cashu, actively maintained; the most-used way to stand up a Cashu mint.",
            "grade": "B",
            "notes": "Being the reference implementation changes nothing about custody — a Nutshell mint is a single custodian who can run off with the sats."
        },
        {
            "name": "CDK (Cashu Dev Kit)",
            "category": "mint",
            "custodial": "custodial (single mint)",
            "trust_model": "Custodial single-operator when used to run a mint. The library is neutral, but any mint built on it is a single custodian that can rug; wallets built on it inherit the custody of whatever mint they connect to.",
            "guardians": "Single operator for a CDK-based mint — no federation model.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — Rust mint libraries with Lightning backends; provides wallet libs too.",
            "privacy": "Standard Cashu Chaumian privacy vs the mint; mint sees supply totals + its own gateway activity.",
            "recovery": "Wallet libs support NUT-13 restore (seed-first + mint-online caveats apply). Bearer-token loss risk unchanged.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Yes — NUT-11 P2PK + NUT-14 HTLC; ships mobile bindings (Swift/Kotlin) for native wallets.",
            "open_source": "MIT",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Actively developed Rust crate collection under cashubtc; increasingly the base for new mints and mobile wallets, with a memory-safety/perf edge over Nutshell.",
            "grade": "B",
            "notes": "A better-engineered way to run a Cashu mint is still a single-custodian mint — CDK does not add federation or reduce rug risk."
        },
        {
            "name": "Cashu.me",
            "category": "wallet",
            "custodial": "non-custodial client / custodial mint",
            "trust_model": "Non-custodial CLIENT, but funds live in whatever Cashu mint you connect to — a single custodian that can rug. The wallet holds bearer secrets in the browser; the mint holds the bitcoin.",
            "guardians": "Depends on the chosen mint (single operator each). Multi-mint spreads risk, but each mint is its own single point of failure.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — Lightning mint/melt through the connected mint(s).",
            "privacy": "Cashu Chaumian privacy vs the mint; browser-based, so clearing browser storage = lost tokens.",
            "recovery": "🔴 Seed backup/restore (NUT-13); seed must exist BEFORE the eCash and the mint must cooperate/be online. Clearing browser data without a prior seed = permanent loss.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Receive/send P2PK-locked tokens depending on version; HTLC tied to mint. Per-feature unverified.",
            "open_source": "MIT",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Popular browser/PWA reference Cashu wallet under cashubtc.",
            "grade": "B",
            "notes": "Browser storage of bearer tokens is fragile — no seed set beforehand means one cache-clear wipes the money."
        },
        {
            "name": "Minibits",
            "category": "wallet",
            "custodial": "non-custodial client / custodial mint",
            "trust_model": "Non-custodial mobile CLIENT; the connected Cashu mint(s) custody the bitcoin and can rug. Adds Lightning addresses and Nostr zaps on top.",
            "guardians": "Single operator per mint; multi-mint spreads across independent single custodians.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — Lightning send/receive plus a Lightning address; eCash under the hood.",
            "privacy": "Cashu Chaumian privacy vs mint; Nostr/Lightning-address features add identity metadata surfaces.",
            "recovery": "Seed-phrase eCash recovery to restore balance after device loss (seed-first + mint-cooperation caveats).",
            "p2pk_htlc": "P2PK/HTLC depends on mint + app version — unverified.",
            "open_source": "open source (mobile)",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Active Android-first eCash+Lightning wallet with Nostr integration.",
            "grade": "C",
            "notes": "Slick UX and Lightning addresses do not change the fact that a single mint holds the sats and can disappear."
        },
        {
            "name": "eNuts",
            "category": "wallet",
            "custodial": "non-custodial client / custodial mint",
            "trust_model": "Non-custodial mobile CLIENT; funds custodied by the connected Cashu mint(s), which can rug. Multi-mint by design.",
            "guardians": "Single operator per mint; risk spread across multiple independent single custodians.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — Lightning mint/melt via connected mints; Nostr contacts integration.",
            "privacy": "Standard Cashu Chaumian privacy vs each mint.",
            "recovery": "Seed-based restore (NUT-13 pattern); bearer-token loss risk if no seed set first / mint offline.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Mint/version-dependent — unverified.",
            "open_source": "open source (mobile)",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Active multi-mint mobile Cashu wallet.",
            "grade": "C",
            "notes": "Multi-mint diversification reduces single-mint blast radius but every mint you use is still a custodian that can steal its share."
        },
        {
            "name": "Nutstash",
            "category": "wallet",
            "custodial": "non-custodial client / custodial mint",
            "trust_model": "Non-custodial CLIENT (web/app); connected Cashu mint(s) hold the bitcoin and can rug.",
            "guardians": "Single operator per mint; multi-mint spreads across independent single custodians.",
            "ln_gateway": "Yes — Lightning mint/melt through mints.",
            "privacy": "Cashu Chaumian privacy vs mint.",
            "recovery": "Early adopter of BIP32/BIP39 deterministic seed recovery for eCash; seed-first + mint-cooperation caveats still apply.",
            "p2pk_htlc": "Mint/version-dependent — unverified.",
            "open_source": "open source",
            "maturity": "beta",
            "status_2026": "Active multi-mint Cashu wallet; helped pioneer seed-based eCash recovery.",
            "grade": "C",
            "notes": "Recovery-from-seed is real but conditional — it needs the mint alive and the seed created before the tokens; it is not Bitcoin-grade self-custody."
        }
    ],
    "context": {
        "ecash_reality": "Bitcoin eCash (Cashu and Fedimint) buys you excellent payment privacy, instant settlement and near-zero fees — but the price is custody: your bitcoin is held by a mint operator or a federation of guardians, and you hold only IOUs (blinded bearer tokens). This is NOT self-custody. If the custodian steals, gets hacked, gets seized, or simply vanishes, your money is gone and no seed phrase can conjure the underlying bitcoin back.",
        "fedimint_vs_cashu": "Cashu = a SINGLE mint operator holds everything and can rug unilaterally; simpler and more flexible (rich P2PK/HTLC), but the highest trust concentration and the bearer-token loss problem is acute. Fedimint = a FEDERATION of M-of-N guardians under BFT consensus; no single guardian can steal or censor, recovery is more robust (seed + guardian-assisted backups), and it targets community-scale trust — but a colluding guardian quorum can still rug, so it distributes custodial trust rather than removing it.",
        "dcent_stance": "Treat eCash as SPENDING MONEY, not savings: a genuinely useful tool for small day-to-day amounts where privacy, speed and low fees matter more than sovereignty. It is custodial — you are trusting a mint or federation with your bitcoin and it can be lost or stolen — and it is never a replacement for cold storage or Lightning self-custody. Prefer Fedimint's federated model over a single Cashu mint when custody matters, keep balances small, always set the recovery seed BEFORE loading value, and treat any mint as a counterparty that can fail."
    }
}