| Some things I don't understand about the "mint" concept. Is the mint itself intended to be a guarantor of its members' solvency? > User onboarding for the Mint API is left to the discretion of the mint implementor or administrator... If I am registered with a mint, and use Settle to offer to pay someone registered at another mint, who ensures I have those funds? (If it turns out I didn't have sufficient funds, I will presumably become dis-"trust"-ed, but how long will it take for that distrust to propagate? And how would newly-arrived members of any mint know that I'm not trustworthy?) On a more mundane level, how is it envisioned that real-world a$$et$ will enter and exit the settle system? If someone has promised me assets, how do I cash them out of the mint and into (say) my PayPal account? I can imagine in a future scenario, existing banks (or PayPal!) could inexpensively and conveniently act as Settle mints, guaranteeing their depositors up to their banked assets. E.G. my bank, Stanford federal credit union, could easily act as a mint and I would be on the network through it as fernly@sfcu.org. SFCU would "know" that I'm good up to my current balance (or some fraction of it chosen by me). But short of that future day, is it not the case that a person setting up amateur mint must really taking on the responsibility of a banker, holding funds and paying them out on demand? |