What you need to and may want to know about using digi.cash

1. digi.cash is really like electronic coins or banknotes

Like cash, your digi.cash balance is made out of individual coins and banknotes, of the denominations shown in the app, which are stored on your phone. They are stored encrypted for protection, but you should still protect your phone if you want to protect your digi.cash.

2. digi.cash is an online payment system

Unlike cash, to make a payment directly from one phone to another, both phones need an active Internet connection. This is because during the transactions, electronic coins are transferred, verified, and exchanged for newly 'minted' coins.

3. digi.cash payments are final

Like cash, when you hand over your cash to someone, they have it. Once you complete a digi.cash payment, it is final, it cannot be reversed by us. If you want to reverse a transaction, you need to get the recipient to pay you back.

4. digi.cash includes no insurances

Like cash, digi.cash does not come with added insurances, like credit card payments. Please use digi.cash as you would with cash – when you are ready to pass it to someone without further guarantees.

5. digi.cash creates transaction records and proofs of payments

Unlike cash, payments in digi.cash produce transaction records, and proofs of payment. There are two kinds of transaction records in digi.cash, Local Records (on your phone only), and Server Records (both your phone and our server hold a copy).

Local Records are created by your phone automatically, each time you make or receive a payment in digi.cash. Basically, your phone automatically keeps track of everything you do with digi.cash, and creates a transaction statement for you. But: this is not a bank statement. It is a statement only you and your phone can see, we as the digi.cash operator cannot see your statement.

Server Records are a full transaction record, for a single transaction, which can be generated on demand by the payer's app. They allow you to prove that you have paid for something, which can be used in case of a dispute with the recipient.

6. Direct payments and e-mail payments with digi.cash

digi.cash allows you to transfer coins and banknotes directly from one phone to another. Or, you can attach your digi.cash to an electronic message, like an e-mail, or a skype chat, or even save them as a file and put them on a USB stick.

Depending on which way you choose to transfer, the transaction record generated is a bit different.

When you transfer directly from one phone to another, your app creates an immediate record of the transaction, once it is complete.

When you send digi.cash to somebody by e-mail or as a computer file, your app will not know whether and when they actually deposited this payment back to their phone. So your transaction record will show that this transaction is not yet confirmed. You then have the option to request confirmation from the server at a later time.

IMPORTANT: when you send digi.cash to somebody by e-mail or as computer files, the recipient's e-mail address is encrypted into the payment message, together with the digi.cash. This is so that it is not possible for someone else to steal the digi.cash while it is 'in transit'. In turn, that means that the recipient's e-mail address must be exactly the same as is registered with their digi.cash wallet. If you send it to a different e-mail address, and they can't deposit, cancel that payment, then resend with the correct e-mail address.

7. Cancelling a payment that did not complete

Unlike cash, if a payment is 'lost in the mail', your digi.cash is not lost. An incomplete payment can be cancelled. This is done by your app keeping a 'copy' of the digi.cash coins and banknotes that were part of a payment, then depositing those itself, instead of the intended recipient making this deposit.

Of course, this only works if the digi.cash hasn't already been deposited by the recipient. A completed payment can never be cancelled! Similarly, once you have cancelled a payment, then the recipient can no longer deposit it if they still receive it. You'll have to send them a new payment instead.

8. What happens if I lose my phone?

Unlike cash, if you lose your phone or it is stolen, there is an 'emergency' function that allows the recovery of all digi.cash that was on your phone. You will need to contact us to block the digi.cash wallet that was on your lost phone, and you can then recover your digi.cash once you have a new phone.

This is a technically complex operation that essentially creates Server Records for all the past transactions of the wallet being recovered.

9. What if I use more than one phone?

Because digi.cash is actually on your phone and is not an account, each of your phones will have its own digi.cash balance. If you want to move it across, just transfer is by paying yourself from one phone to the other.