Calle and Collaborators Build Nostr Directory for Bitcoin Ecash Mints

Calle and collaborators are developing an Internet Mint Finder on Nostr to organize Bitcoin (BTC) ecash mint announcements and reviews, giving users a shared directory for evaluating services they must trust.

Cashu is an open-source protocol for issuing Chaumian ecash on Bitcoin. A mint is a service that exchanges Bitcoin for ecash, and users rely on the operator as part of that arrangement. Choosing a mint therefore involves trust, a point explored in TokenPost’s earlier coverage of Cashu’s mint trust model.

The directory uses NIP-87, a Nostr format for messages about mints and reviews. Nostr is a decentralized messaging network. Under NIP-87, mint announcements use event kind 38172, while user reviews use kind 38000.

Apps that support NIP-87 can read the same announcements and reviews, allowing them to build different ways to browse the information. The Internet Mint Finder is intended to gather those posts in a directory.

Other discovery options already exist. As of Oct. 5, 63 mints were tracked, 34 of them online, and 962 reviews had been logged. The cashu.me web wallet also offers mint discovery and ratings based on user-generated Nostr data.

Calle and collaborators have not detailed which features will distinguish the finder from those options. They have not provided a launch schedule.