The law under discussion is about asking for permission. You're only an illegal money transmitter if you didn't ask for permission to be a money transmitter, right?

What I meant to say, regardless of profit or non-profit, is equivalent of this:

1. If I lend you $10 with no interest because you're short on cash and you need food, it would be really dumb for anyone to try and regulate me.
2. If I sell 1000 people a mortgage at interest... I have less problems with regulation. 

Bottom line, let the corporations be regulated. Let people be free.

optimism

bitcoin

Are Cashu mint operators breaking the law?

It feels like cashu exists because lightning is bad at async receive and on boarding with small amounts. People don't want to run an always available node and they don't want to manage liquidity. That is not going to change. Hopefully lightning gets to the point where users aren't aware they are doing these things. 

The distinction between mints that operate for profit and not is interesting: if the laws are such that they push mints toward being nonprofit endeavors, I'd say that is bad -- one of the things that might keep a mint honest is if they are making a lot of money. 