Credit tokens

The unit a mint issues against a bill. Bearer, private, non-custodial digital cash, spendable instantly, in person or online.

Credit sats and debit sats

The distinction that makes the system legible:

• A credit sat is a satoshi's worth of credit money, circulating before the underlying bill matures.
• A debit sat is an outright satoshi.

Credit sats swap automatically into debit sats when the underlying bill is paid on-chain. That is the whole arc: credit money exists for the interval between a sale and its settlement, and stops existing when the settlement arrives.

The standardised, fungible unit a mint issues by splitting a bill's amount is called a minibill; it is the technical form of e-cash.

The two attributes each unit carries

Every unit keeps two attributes of the bill it came from:

1. Who owes it.
2. When it falls due.

This is what lets Wildcats recognise each other's units. A mint receiving a unit it did not issue can see what stands behind it, which is why e-cash from one mint spends against any other and where a unit was minted does not matter to whoever accepts it.

Mints settle between themselves, and the network of them is called a clowder, so e-cash minted in Austria pays a supplier in China.

Redemption

At the maturity of the bill it came from, e-cash redeems 1:1 into outright Bitcoin on the mainchain.

The fee is taken once, at the start, when the bill is minted. What you hold afterwards does not decay: there is no carry, no demurrage, and no second bite at maturity.

This is the Law of Reflux in operation: credit money issued against real value flows back to its issuer and is extinguished at maturity, which is why the supply cannot inflate. A unit of e-cash is not a claim that persists; it is a claim with an expiry built into the instrument behind it.

Melting

Taking e-cash out into outright Bitcoin before maturity is called melting. The fee for it is set by the mint that issued the unit, not by the protocol, so it is worth comparing melt fees when choosing a mint, alongside minting fees and guarantee ratios.

What a payment costs

One satoshi, flat, regardless of amount. Not a percentage. Eleven payments cost eleven satoshis, with no monthly fee.

Non-custodial

A payment splits into Bitcoin outputs only the holder's own key can spend. A mint going under does not touch what a holder has already received.

Dishonour

If the bill behind a unit is not paid at maturity, that is a dishonour. It exposes the payer, triggers the endorsement chain, and blocks the guaranteeing mint from creating anything further until the guarantee is honoured. Holders are redeemed out of the mint's guarantee capital while recovery runs.