for the record, a “federation backed ledger” is a setup where a small group (3-7 for fedimints iiuc, 15+ for liquid) hold a multisig address

bitcoin is deposited into that address, in return you get a “permission less” account object (ecash/a liquid utxo) that corresponds to the deposit you made

the multisig group runs a redemption gateway that you can claim L1 utxos in exchange for the account object you hold; generally third parties also run swap services where you can exchange your account object for an LN payment (made to a node you or someone else runs)