I appreciate the effort, but even if we assume that mint operators are good people and will not rug pull their users, who in the right mind would take the risk to run a big/reputable mint when they could easily get charged with money laundering and unlicensed money transmission operations?
Announcing: Harbor, an ecash desktop wallet for better bitcoin privacy.
https://blog.mutinywallet.com/harbor/
Privacy for the common person is a value worth fighting for. When we see a lack of freedom tools, we must build them into existence. They don't appear on their own.
Much has been said about privacy at the Bitcoin protocol level. For now, we build it on higher layers where we can be more nimble.
Ecash is a tool available today that combines with Bitcoin to bring new levels of common privacy. Cashu and Fedimint are two existing implementations we're interested in.
Harbor Privacy: All communication runs over Tor. Mutiny is not in the middle of any connections or transactions. Funds in the wallet get a Privacy Score to show how the mints provide privacy over time. More to come on this in the future.
Harbor Multi-mint: Instead of relying on a single mint with your funds, spread the risk over dozens or more. Harbor manages this for you, showing you a single balance while connecting with mints for you. A mint can go offline with minimal impact on you.
Harbor Automation: Running as a desktop app unlocks ability to do long running processes in the background. Move money in and out of mints on your preferred schedule to maximize your desired level of privacy. Harbor makes suggestions, but you are in control.
Move money in and out of Harbor using Lightning or on-chain. We love Bitcoin, and we love privacy. We hope Harbor gives everyday people more privacy and peace of mind.
Discussion
I like BTC Sessions point of view on this. Operator wont be known and they will build a "kind of trust" over time.
My opinion is to only put your spending amounts on this and to use tools to automatically use multiple mints and reduce the risk.
Also, I wonder if we could have a federated mint with thousands of people. 🤔
Unfortunately, scammers will start operating mints without relieving their identities of course and do this so well that they will gain enough trust to hold substantial amounts of btc. Then, they will rug pull. There has to be some kind of collateral that the mint locks on-chain, which gets lost/donated if the mint does not allow users to pull their funds.
If I have services for 5 years and get rug pulled for 50$, it still worth it. 🤔
I like your idea with the collateral.
like we need 1000/3000 signatures in the federation. Is it possible?