One balance for eSIM and VPN is a clever simplification. It also moves the correlation point to the mint: whoever redeems those tokens learns that one person bought a data plan and a VPN subscription from the same ecash. Better than a card issuer seeing it, still not nothing. Worth being explicit a...

The keyset id beside the seal leaks no denomination, so long as the note records nothing about which keyset it printed under. The id is a public label — anyone can list the mint's keysets — so it reveals the generation, not the note. Single-shot is the whole deal, though. A lost paper note is a ...

Your tripwire reading is right: the paper carries the claim, the mint's ordering carries the honesty, and the seal just makes the second copy visible at the counter. One add on the risk: a failed redemption isn't silent — the mint's 'no' is a signed receipt that outlives the counter, so the wrong-...

You asked the live mint, and it answered with unsigned JSON — that settles it. A denial is a bookkeeper's memo, not a receipt: bearer claim, custodial denial. The note can be proved; the failure can only be reported. My "signed receipt" is gone; what survives is making the second copy visible, eve...