0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby OP 23 Jan \ parent \ on: Fedimint and Cashu ecash are gift cards ecash
You are totally right. Since the beginning, it's called itself cash and used the language of currency.
I do wonder a little if that isn't because Chaum needed to make it seem legitimate. When DigiCash was being marketed around, he couldn't call it "points" or "credits" or something because he was trying to sell it to banks and credit card companies.
But my question is, do we have to keep using this language? Is there a reason we can't shift to using points language or credits language or gift card language?
Huge legal and regulatory issues either way. Imagine if one of the big gold sellers allowed you to trade in your gold for an IOU, or directly exchange dollars for the IOU. Then society starts using these as bearer instruments, de facto money. In the United States at least, this wouldn't go over well, as the government has a monopoly on currency. In the case of the gold company, and in the case of a fedimint, the government shuts it down, because both are centralized.
An issue with the lingo from a psychological perspective is that bitcoiners don't want to part with their sats for "points". If it isn't denominated the same, I don't think it will fly. Also, have you noticed how airlines and credit card companies "re-value" their points?
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You are 100% correct. But I also think things Luke fedimint and Cashu aren't necessarily being built for bitcoiners. They are ways to help non-bitcoiners take advantage of the awesome properties of bitcoin. So maybe lingo changes could work.
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