35 sats \ 4 replies \ @HardRich 30 May \ on: Summarizing my thoughts on ecash bitcoin
I don’t have a dog in this fight but it seems like you’re saying eCash would replace on-chain coins. One is for pocket money one is for savings.
Sadly, the US is staring to suck and the MSB argument is legit. That being said, there are other countries.
Good point.
OP had a really good point about MSB. But the U.S. is not the whole world.... and Federated Mints with thousands of users, dozens of well-known key holders, and a single large well managed LN node, sounds like absolute heaven. It's the promised land, and we shouldn't poo-poo it simply because the U.S. is a big bully.
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US MSB arguments will quickly apply to almost all jurisdictions, as they already do. FinCEN and FATF reach is far beyond US borders.
you’re saying eCash would replace on-chain coins
Most are positing that this is how people should be spending their Bitcoin. I see no need for custodial solutions at this point, especially when there are major UX improvements to be had with simple soft-forks like covenants via CTV or LNHANCE.
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Do you think covenants will be coming any time soon? They sound like a good idea but most folks seem gun shy about any changes. I'm guessing we need some distance from the NFT mess and then maybe folks will be open to another soft fork? But, how long will that be? Seems like a few years in my estimation. In the mean time, if some folks are building out some scaling concepts it seems like a fine thing to do.
I'm not sure I agree that the MSB topic will be as big of a deal as you think. I do think the US will want to go after them. Will they be able to in the end or will it go to the supreme court? And even if so, is there no way nym mints wouldn't be able to exist? Most of the bitcoin folks I follow are nyms or might as well be. Besides, I'm not going to stress about losing $1k across a few mints.
And, will MSB apply to a small group using a fedimint? Perhaps, but that sure would be bad optics if the US went after a small family, community, organization for hosting a mint for themselves simply to avoid transaction fees, for example.
Or maybe I'm too optimistic.
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Do you think covenants will be coming any time soon?
Yes, massive and growing traction in the Bitcoin developer community around covenants + extending Bitcoin script via the Great Script Restoration or similar. Hard to give timelines but we're getting closer steadily to rough consensus.
Will they be able to in the end or will it go to the supreme court?
If Tornado Cash and Samourai cases are lost then mints are 100% a simple prosecution as they're already far "worse," legally.
And even if so, is there no way nym mints wouldn't be able to exist?
They can definitely exist, but will incentivize rug pulls, and the few good ones will be scared off after one mint op gets prosecuted. It's very, very, very hard to maintain OPSEC as a nym when a nation state wants to track you down.
And, will MSB apply to a small group using a fedimint?
Supposedly there is some grey area if its a fedimint with enough signers but not sure the specifics of that. Agreed that it would be a much harder legal sell if it's actually community custody, but no fedimints are that ATM AFAIK. If they remain very small and very niche they might just not be worth pursuing for the US gov but hard to say.
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