Comparaison de l’eCash Bitcoin (Cashu vs Fedimint)

Réponse rapide

Avant toute comparaison de fonctionnalités, la seule chose à comprendre sur l'eCash Bitcoin : c'est CONSERVÉ PAR UN TIERS. Cashu et Fedimint vous offrent une confidentialité de paiement réellement excellente, un règlement instantané et des frais quasi nuls — mais vous détenez des jetons au porteur aveuglés (des reconnaissances de dette), pas du bitcoin, et un mint ou une fédération détient les vraies pièces. Si ce dépositaire vole, se fait pirater, se fait saisir, ou disparaît simplement, votre argent est perdu, et aucune phrase seed ne le récupère. Les deux modèles diffèrent par le DEGRÉ de concentration de cette confiance : Cashu est un opérateur de mint unique qui peut tout emporter à 100 % unilatéralement, tandis que Fedimint répartit la conservation sur une fédération M-sur-N de gardiens où un quorum seuil doit comploter pour voler — plus sûr, mais toujours pas de l'auto-conservation. Les jetons au porteur perdus sont généralement irrécupérables, et même la restauration par seed qui existe ne fonctionne que si vous définissez la seed AVANT de charger de la valeur et que le mint est encore en ligne.

L'eCash, c'est de l'argent de dépense, pas de l'épargne. Utilisez-le pour de petits montants quotidiens où la confidentialité et la vitesse priment sur la souveraineté ; gardez tout ce que vous ne pouvez pas vous permettre de perdre en auto-conservation (stockage à froid ou Lightning que vous contrôlez). Si vous l'utilisez, préférez une fédération Fedimint bien gérée à un mint Cashu unique, gardez de petits soldes, et définissez votre seed de récupération avant de charger un seul sat.

🔴 L'eCash n'est pas de l'auto-conservation. Un opérateur de mint (Cashu) ou une fédération de gardiens (Fedimint) détient votre bitcoin et peut le perdre, le voler ou le geler. Les jetons au porteur perdus sont généralement perdus pour de bon. À utiliser pour de petits montants de dépense seulement.

Implémentation	Conservation	Modèle de confiance et gardiens	Sauvegarde / récupération	P2PK / HTLC	Maturité
Fedimintprotocol	custodial (federated)	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.Gardiens : 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.	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.	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.	productionMIT · A
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.
Fediapp	custodial (federated)	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.Gardiens : Federated M-of-N (inherits Fedimint). Decentralization depends entirely on how independent the specific community's guardians are.	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.	Inherits Fedimint's LN/HTLC gateway interop; not marketed as a P2PK note-locking wallet. Detail unverified.	productionAGPL-3.0 (full stack open-sourced 3 Jan 2026, the Bitcoin genesis anniversary) · A
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.
Cashuprotocol	custodial (single mint)	🔴 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.Gardiens : Single mint operator. ONE entity holds custody and can rug or censor unilaterally — no federation, no M-of-N, no quorum.	🔴 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.	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.	betaMIT · A
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.
Nutshellmint	custodial (single mint)	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.Gardiens : Single operator — no federation; one admin controls the funds and the Lightning backend.	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.	Yes — reference implementation of NUT-11 P2PK + NUT-14 HTLC; ~v0.20 (early 2026) reported improved validation (version unverified).	betaMIT · B
Being the reference implementation changes nothing about custody — a Nutshell mint is a single custodian who can run off with the sats.
CDK (Cashu Dev Kit)mint	custodial (single mint)	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.Gardiens : Single operator for a CDK-based mint — no federation model.	Wallet libs support NUT-13 restore (seed-first + mint-online caveats apply). Bearer-token loss risk unchanged.	Yes — NUT-11 P2PK + NUT-14 HTLC; ships mobile bindings (Swift/Kotlin) for native wallets.	betaMIT · B
A better-engineered way to run a Cashu mint is still a single-custodian mint — CDK does not add federation or reduce rug risk.
Cashu.mewallet	non-custodial client / custodial mint	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.Gardiens : Depends on the chosen mint (single operator each). Multi-mint spreads risk, but each mint is its own single point of failure.	🔴 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.	Receive/send P2PK-locked tokens depending on version; HTLC tied to mint. Per-feature unverified.	betaMIT · B
Browser storage of bearer tokens is fragile — no seed set beforehand means one cache-clear wipes the money.
Minibitswallet	non-custodial client / custodial mint	Non-custodial mobile CLIENT; the connected Cashu mint(s) custody the bitcoin and can rug. Adds Lightning addresses and Nostr zaps on top.Gardiens : Single operator per mint; multi-mint spreads across independent single custodians.	Seed-phrase eCash recovery to restore balance after device loss (seed-first + mint-cooperation caveats).	P2PK/HTLC depends on mint + app version — unverified.	betaopen source (mobile) · C
Slick UX and Lightning addresses do not change the fact that a single mint holds the sats and can disappear.
eNutswallet	non-custodial client / custodial mint	Non-custodial mobile CLIENT; funds custodied by the connected Cashu mint(s), which can rug. Multi-mint by design.Gardiens : Single operator per mint; risk spread across multiple independent single custodians.	Seed-based restore (NUT-13 pattern); bearer-token loss risk if no seed set first / mint offline.	Mint/version-dependent — unverified.	betaopen source (mobile) · C
Multi-mint diversification reduces single-mint blast radius but every mint you use is still a custodian that can steal its share.
Nutstashwallet	non-custodial client / custodial mint	Non-custodial CLIENT (web/app); connected Cashu mint(s) hold the bitcoin and can rug.Gardiens : Single operator per mint; multi-mint spreads across independent single custodians.	Early adopter of BIP32/BIP39 deterministic seed recovery for eCash; seed-first + mint-cooperation caveats still apply.	Mint/version-dependent — unverified.	betaopen source · C
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.

Cashu vs Fedimint. 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.

Où ça s'inscrit. 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.

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Dernière révision: 27 juillet 2026.