pull down to refresh
929 sats \ 5 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Jan \ on: Fedimint and Cashu ecash are gift cards ecash
Gift cards sound so ridiculous when you start describing them in other terms.
It's a zero interest loan to the store, that can only be repaid in kind (with goods that the store chooses the valuation of), and the store reserves the right to default with no penalty.
What's interesting is most of the laws around them seem to be aimed at consumer protection (gift cards can't charge maintenance fees, can't expire before five Yeats, can't hide your balance from you). Nobody seems to be interested in regulating the money the company holds for you.
They also often must be redeemable for cash under a certain nominal balance ($10 or $2.50), although some states in the US require redemption in cash at any amount.
I saw some numbers that there was more than $100 billion loaded on gift cards in 2018 or something like that. So we aren't talking about chump change.
reply
regulating the money the company holds for you
The store isn't really holding money for the consumer though, is it?
A gift card is basically a prepayment for an unspecified later purchase. Even if they're required to redeem them in cash, that would presumably just be treated the same way refunds are treated.
reply
You are right. Prepayment is the term.
But it does make me think that I can "pay" for ecash tokens.
reply
Sure, but who's the analogue of the store, then?
Is it more like a Visa gift card? People probably think of that more as Visa having custody of your money.
reply
I think the mint is the analogue store.
There is a lot of language in the gift card laws about the card only being redeemed at the company it came from. This is true of fedimints and Cashu mints I think even in the case where you are interacting with a LN gateway or another mint. The gateway and mint both have to "redeem" the ecash at the original mint. So that's another similarity.
reply