minting.md

OpenCBDC Secure Minting (UTXO)

Requirements

• The ability to mint money
• Only select entities can mint
• A minter can mint more than once
• Must follow the same validation requirements as a normal transaction
• Must support test environments

Mint vs. Normal Transaction

• A mint transaction has no associated inputs to reference. This changes the validation flow
• The public key used to verify the signature on a mint transaction must be known in advance and deemed as authorized to do so

Challenges

• How do you identify keys used for mint transactions? This is important for both the minter and validator
• A mint transaction has no inputs. The validation flow in both architectures check inputs.
• If authorized keys are listed in the configuration file, how does this impact runtime changes?

Areas impacted

• Wallet: Needs to support both normal and mint keys
• Sentinel: Validation
• Configuration: Needs to list authorized minter keys
• Coordinator: Checks attestation for transactions which includes looking at inputs

Potential Ideas:

• Could a BIP32 style HD wallet along with BIP43 (purpose of the keys) be used?
• Should a mint transaction include 1 input, where the input has a unique marker (like a coinbase transaction) to signify a minting transaction?