💡 Proposal / Idea: Automated Lightning → Cashu Ecash → On-Chain UTXO Flow
🧠 Just an idea — looking for feedback from devs in the Cashu/Bitcoin ecosystem
Hi Calle, Gigi, OpenSats, and anyone else deep in the space,
I wanted to share a concept that came to mind and get your input. I'm not a developer myself (or at least not a low-level one), so I can’t build this yet — but I’m hoping someone in the community might find the idea interesting or let me know if it’s feasible at all.
🧩 The Basic Idea
A tool or script that:
Receives small Lightning payments automatically
Swaps those sats into Cashu ecash at a mint
Distributes the tokens across new, temporary wallets (to simulate airdrops, privacy, or wallet fragmentation)
And eventually allows those tokens to be redeemed back into a BTC on-chain UTXO, all without user accounts, logins, or custodianship
Everything would happen locally — as computation on the user’s own machine — kind of like scripting your own money flow.
🔐 Why I Think It’s Valuable
From my (non-dev) perspective, this could:
Let people simulate bank runs or test Cashu mints under load
Enable cool use cases like airdrops or privacy-friendly distributions
Give users a way to exit Cashu back into Bitcoin without needing to go through custodians or exchanges
Be a sort of “ecash circuit” builder for devs or advanced users
It’s also privacy-first by design: no tracking, no identity, no accounts. Just local scripts moving ecash around.
🛠 What It Would Need (I Think)
A Lightning wallet that supports automation (LNbits? LND?)
The Cashu wallet client (Python?) to do the minting and redeeming
A way to create fresh wallets per transfer (to split the tokens)
Some method to redeem the tokens into a Lightning invoice that ultimately sends BTC to an on-chain address — maybe using Boltz, Lightning Loop, or something like that?
❓What I’d Love Feedback On
Is this technically possible today with the current state of Cashu and Lightning tools?
Are there risks around too many wallets or token splits?
Would this kind of thing be useful — or is it just a toy idea?
Could it maybe evolve into a devtool or test harness for Cashu mints?
👋 Final Thoughts
I know I don’t have the technical background to build this myself right now — but if someone in the ecosystem thinks it’s worth trying, I’d love to collaborate, test it, or just watch it happen.
Even if it’s just a learning experiment or a prototype, I think there’s something cool in being able to build your own local ecash flows like this — especially with no centralized middlemen involved.
Thanks for all your work on Cashu, Lightning, and open-source Bitcoin infrastructure — and thanks in advance for reading this and considering the idea.
I am a satsflow maxi and vibe coded my first app
My lovable.dev credits have run out just getting up to this point, need to switch for a cuda capable alternative to not have so many sats flow out to gpu farms 😁
In august of 2024 my beloved galaxy S8+ drowned in my frame bag on my gravel bike during storm rainfall in the alps despite being "waterproof" . I settled for a cheap used A40 as we were at 1800 Sats per Dollar. Now I pulled the trigger on a new S24 FE and pay approx 20 000 Sat monthly.
Bitcoin changes you. I expect the monthly payment to decrease over the next 18 months so a 0% loan is a no brainer.
