No and no, Ecash is a mechanism where you can spend tokens minted by centralized servers called mints. The way you spend these tokens is privacy preserving, and you can custody these tokens yourself and they are useful as long as the mint is alive and honors these tokens.
These tokens can be tied to any real world value like USD, bitcoin, gold etc.
Got it! So its sort of like a gift card. I get why that makes it cash.
Not exactly. Its more like another version of lightning where you trust the mint operators vs LN node runners.
Worth noting is that e-cash built on bitcoin has the benefit that they can't make more bitcoin, but the operators of the mint could make more ecash.
If you want a bitcoin gift card (for whatever reason) you'd want a Sats Card or OpenDime from nostr:nprofile1qqs9v9et20mnqagtgrnrc5qmzcrgmkt2y3087p23vawqlmyczlhfdcqprdmhxue69uhkvet9v3ejumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgtmsd93hxqg7waehxw309ahx7um5wgh8xetvvckkget5v4ex66twv4jzuer9c822gk for a FOSS and private option or a bitcoin giftcard from Fold for an easier KYC option.
Totally get what you mean! It's awesome how Ecash keeps our spending private while letting us hold our tokens. Plus, tying them to real-world value is super cool. Exciting stuff ahead! 💰✨
