I prototyped a fully functional Bitchat Cashu wallet. From Figma wireframes to Kotlin code running live on Android. Pretty excited about the workflow. Sharing my exact flow in case it helps anyone else.
erik
erik@primal.net
npub1zqsu...cqrs
Bitcoin Product Designer @ Hoseki. Human Rights Foundation grantee working on cashu.
why would anyone do drugs when they could just vibe code a cashu wallet?
Bitchat reminds me of the feeling of coming from school, jumping on IRC, and loading up Counter Strike 1.6.
Any job where you get to work with your heroes is a good job. I’m very fortunate to have a good job.
During @BTC Prague Dev/Hack/Day I gave a talk on the State of Cashu Design. I'm sharing the presentation here along with a few key points.
I covered 3 common problem areas that Cashu applications face, what wallets are currently doing to address them, what we could be doing better and how Multinut Payments helps address some of these points.
Discoverability & Onboarding
One of the most common hurdles users experience when they first download a Cashu wallet is the "How do I find a mint?" question.
Some wallets that have made progress in addressing this. Cashu.me and @npub1arcw...ggtw They have a built in a mint discovery feature, the data is pulled from bitcoinmints.com. Cashu.me does a great job of keeping the discovery flow in wallet.
What could we be doing better?
Bitcoin Mints is a great resource but the current mint list display still requires significant cognitive effort on the users behalf.
Here's a design idea that could reduce that cognitive bottleneck.
Note: There is a centralization risks associated with this design. By showing a limited number of highly rated mints we could be reducing the variety of mints people are using across the Cashu ecosystem.
Rug Protection & Risk Mitigation
Another common problem users face is knowing the risks associated with a mint.
How can users make a more informed decision when picking a mint? bitcoinmints.com shows community ratings (e.g. 4.2⭐) for each mint, but is that enough?
We can combine a mint auditor and mint swaps to increase rug protection and reduce risk.
Let's talk about the mint auditor. It provides detailed information about the performance, uptime, and reliability of Cashu mints.
Cashu.me and @Sovran have integrated the mint auditor. In Cashu.me the user can see the mint audit information in a modal before they decide to trust a mint.
What could we be doing better?
Combine the community reviews from bitcoinmints and the audit data from a mint auditor. This could make it easier show the user the most important info in plain english.
Next up, Mint swaps.
Mint swaps allow users to receive ecash into their trusted mint. Reducing the need to hold ecash from unknown mints. Cashu.me and Macadamia both support mint swaps.
Lastly, I want to talk about Multinut Payments. A feature I am very fond of and I think will play a huge role in risk mitigation in the future.
Multinut payments is still in the very early stages. 
is the only GUI wallet that supports it as of right now.
When making a LN payment for an amount larger than your current mint balance, Multinut Payments allow the user to pay using the balance from multiple mints.
As bullish as I am on Multinut Payments, I know that the UX (right now) is not where it needs to be. If I told you that executing a Multinut payment is simple, you would be right to call me a liar.
The current user cognitive costs outweigh the benefits. Users have to manually choose mints, decide how much to send from each, and manage multiple balances. It feels like doing accounting or using an abacus just to pay an invoice.
What the user actually wants is simple: Pay while being able to spread risk across mints, without losing the convenience of ecash.
I think this Steve Jobs quote nails where we are. The groundwork is here, but we haven’t had enough time to design it so it feels like magic.
The goal isn’t to make users feel smart. It’s to make them feel like it was easy all along.
We have to make it simple. The more time and energy we spend, the better the tools will be.
YOU can help us. You don't need to be a developer or a designer. One of the biggest ways to help is to just USE the tools and give us your thoughts. Tells us what you found confusing, what words didn't make sense. What you felt could be better. Your feedback is a gift.
Link to full presentation: https://www.figma.com/deck/nR0U6iQklDvngKQdHumBlo/State-of-ecash-Design?node-id=1-779&t=C4dfhrCUssAO5qHl-1
I covered 3 common problem areas that Cashu applications face, what wallets are currently doing to address them, what we could be doing better and how Multinut Payments helps address some of these points.
Discoverability & Onboarding
One of the most common hurdles users experience when they first download a Cashu wallet is the "How do I find a mint?" question.
Some wallets that have made progress in addressing this. Cashu.me and @npub1arcw...ggtw They have a built in a mint discovery feature, the data is pulled from bitcoinmints.com. Cashu.me does a great job of keeping the discovery flow in wallet.
What could we be doing better?
Bitcoin Mints is a great resource but the current mint list display still requires significant cognitive effort on the users behalf.
Here's a design idea that could reduce that cognitive bottleneck.
Note: There is a centralization risks associated with this design. By showing a limited number of highly rated mints we could be reducing the variety of mints people are using across the Cashu ecosystem.
Rug Protection & Risk Mitigation
Another common problem users face is knowing the risks associated with a mint.
How can users make a more informed decision when picking a mint? bitcoinmints.com shows community ratings (e.g. 4.2⭐) for each mint, but is that enough?
We can combine a mint auditor Mint Auditor
Next up, Mint swaps.
Mint swaps allow users to receive ecash into their trusted mint. Reducing the need to hold ecash from unknown mints. Cashu.me and Macadamia macadamia Wallet
The first native iOS wallet for the Cashu ecash protocol. Private, instant, non-custodial digital cash.
Multinut payments is still in the very early stages. cashu.me
Cashu Me
A native wallet for iPhone and Android. Hold bearer ecash on your device, send with a tap, redeem to any Lightning address. No account.
The current user cognitive costs outweigh the benefits. Users have to manually choose mints, decide how much to send from each, and manage multiple balances. It feels like doing accounting or using an abacus just to pay an invoice.
What the user actually wants is simple: Pay while being able to spread risk across mints, without losing the convenience of ecash.
I think this Steve Jobs quote nails where we are. The groundwork is here, but we haven’t had enough time to design it so it feels like magic.
The goal isn’t to make users feel smart. It’s to make them feel like it was easy all along.
We have to make it simple. The more time and energy we spend, the better the tools will be.
YOU can help us. You don't need to be a developer or a designer. One of the biggest ways to help is to just USE the tools and give us your thoughts. Tells us what you found confusing, what words didn't make sense. What you felt could be better. Your feedback is a gift.
Link to full presentation: https://www.figma.com/deck/nR0U6iQklDvngKQdHumBlo/State-of-ecash-Design?node-id=1-779&t=C4dfhrCUssAO5qHl-1
Possibly the first Cashu / ecash transaction on a @npub1a00w...9q3h computer. Courtesy of @Minibits.
GM. Let’s smash it this week.
Some Bitaxe lore dropped by @WantClue . History of the PCB development. Original name was “Day Miner”. It took @npub1ql2z...rxya almost two years to build a prototype that can be handed to a layperson. I’m so bullish on Bitaxe.
Support Open Source Miners United: osmu.wiki
This is the place @miljan.
Worked with npub185h9z5yxn8uc7retm0n6gkm88358lejzparxms5kmy9epr236k2qcswrdp and the @npub13s5m...l03e community to put together this site. Please support the Save Our Wallets campaign.
Save Our Wallets – Protect Your Right to Transact Freely
Satoshi Needs You to help Save our Wallets! Demand that congress support the BRCA amendments to the CLARITY Act. Protect your right to transact fre...
Iranian VPN activists are cracked. Ziya Sadr explaining how devs are constantly deploying new VPN protocols so people can bypass the Iranian firewall. It’s basically a cat and mouse game, eventually the Iranian government finds out, blocks the method, then a new one is deployed.
Inspiring to see how much impact one developer can have. A single VPN activist can deploy a service that helps millions bypass the censor.
Spent all evening showing throwing ecash at people. This way of tossing people bitcoin is special, people react to it really well. All credit due to the push UX of ecash.
Philip Zimmermann on why Chaumian ecash never caught on despite its solid cryptography.
GM
This 1983 clip of Steve Jobs gives me chills. He's describing a future we’re only now starting to realize.
Getting really good at communication is probably one of the most important skills a designer can have, right up there with craft and taste. A lot of designers struggle with it (me included), mostly because our work tends to focus so much on those other two.
The @npub13s5m...l03e Designathon kicks off calls are tomorrow!
We’ve got two calls lined up. Join to hear how it all works, learn about prizes, and get your questions answered about projects, teams, or anything else.
Presidio Bitcoin Design Week
Presidio Bitcoin Design Week
We’re bringing together designers from the bitcoin community and designers from across Silicon Valley’s tech community to tackle how to beautif...
Checkout this designers, creatives & artists follow pack. Did I miss anyone? Let me know and I'll update.
https://following.space/d/e74b4dff-361a-416b-8012-3dc0112833fa
GM. Finding your purpose is a blessing. Becoming your purpose is an even greater one.