Been thinking about how ecash wallets handle mint selection.
Option 1: Automatic mint connection.
You connect users to a default mint automatically during onboarding.
✅ No friction
✅ Noob friendly
✅ Start making transactions right away
Comes with risks: Passive users, mint centralization, and custodian choice lands on the wallet.
Option 2: Manual mint selection
More common approach. Show users a list of mints (usually via bitcoinmints.com) and ask them to pick one before proceeding.
There’s a third approach I keep circling back to: Just-in-time mint selection.
The wallet doesn’t ask you to choose anything upfront. You’re asked to trust a mint only when you first try to do something, like claim ecash or top up your wallet.
Every approach appeals to different types of users. Depends on what wallet devs want to prioritize too. How and when you throw the decision to the user shapes how they relate to ecash.
Option 1: Automatic mint connection.
You connect users to a default mint automatically during onboarding.
✅ No friction
✅ Noob friendly
✅ Start making transactions right away
Comes with risks: Passive users, mint centralization, and custodian choice lands on the wallet.
Option 2: Manual mint selection
More common approach. Show users a list of mints (usually via bitcoinmints.com) and ask them to pick one before proceeding.
There’s a third approach I keep circling back to: Just-in-time mint selection.
The wallet doesn’t ask you to choose anything upfront. You’re asked to trust a mint only when you first try to do something, like claim ecash or top up your wallet.
Every approach appeals to different types of users. Depends on what wallet devs want to prioritize too. How and when you throw the decision to the user shapes how they relate to ecash.