I'm very cautious about reputation-based mint selection. It is trivial to start Nostr identities and Sibyl review a mint. The reviews of the mint will only be as good as the reputation of the person reviewing it, which itself is subject to impersonation.

So if Jack and Odell say a mint is good, and you verify their npubs, then that's a start. But seeing a mint with 5000 5***** reviews tells you nothing (or worse, it implies a scam).

Furthermore, this is money we're talking about, so I would expect mints to act like darknet markets-- open up long enough to get a reputation and accumulate user funds, then rug.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great start. But this is not going to be the final solution to trust in mints. There MUST in the end be something else. It may end up being insurance, or only having high trust in mints run by public/known institutions (banks, or Amazon).