Terms & Privacy

What Switchboard is

Switchboard is software for discovering services and open requests published on the Nostr network and for coordinating escrowed payments in Cashu ecash over Lightning. It is a tool, not a party to your transactions. Buyers and sellers deal directly with each other.

Your keys and your funds (non-custodial)

Your Nostr private key, your Cashu tokens, escrow preimages, and unlock material stay in your browser and never reach our servers. We cannot move, freeze, refund, or recover your funds, and we cannot reset or recover your key. You are solely responsible for safeguarding your key and for backing up the escrow unlock material an order gives you. Lose it and the funds for that order may be unrecoverable.

Escrow and the Cashu mint

While an order is funded, the backing sats are held as ecash by a third-party Cashu mint that you select from the allowlist. That mint is a custodian of those sats: it could go offline, fail, be seized, change its terms, or refuse to redeem. Switchboard does not operate the mint, does not control it, and is not liable for its conduct or solvency. Choose a mint you trust, and prefer small amounts.

Nostr is public

Listings, requests, profile details, and other events you publish are signed with your key and broadcast to independent relays you do not control. They are public, may be copied and re-published by anyone, and cannot be guaranteed to be deleted once sent. Do not publish anything you are not comfortable making permanent and public.

What we store, and what we do not

To run the order ledger we store observable, non-secret data: order amounts, escrow lock terms, the public keys of the parties, and timestamps, plus a session record when you sign in. We never store private keys, escrow preimages, spendable proofs, or the plaintext of your encrypted messages. Private messages are end-to-end encrypted between you and the other party.

Disputes and mediation

Some orders use a mediated (2-of-3) escrow in which a platform arbiter can co-sign to resolve a dispute. Mediation is a best effort to reach a fair outcome and is not a guarantee. In every case the buyer keeps a refund path that opens after the escrow locktime passes.

Our commitment, and its limits

We build the money path carefully and review it adversarially. Still, no software is perfect and operations on Bitcoin and Cashu are irreversible, so we offer Switchboard as independent, early software without a guarantee and cannot accept liability for a counterparty's conduct or for a mint or relay failing. Supporting the project directly funds the testing, audits, and infrastructure that make it more dependable over time.

Acceptable use

Do not use Switchboard for anything illegal where you are, for fraud, or to harm others. You are responsible for complying with the laws and taxes that apply to you.

Changes and contact

These terms may change as the software evolves; continued use means you accept the current version. Questions or concerns: reach us on Nostr at our profile.