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Recipient Journey: The Active BCH Seller

📖 Unfamiliar terms? See the glossary for definitions.

Role: BCH Seller (Active → Can become Passive)
Example: Elena in Caracas (Venezuela) receiving €100 from María in Madrid (Spain)

Overview

A recipient is someone who receives cross-border money. In Asgaya’s framework, they are BCH sellers who:

  1. Receive BCH via a covenant
  2. Sell that BCH to a local merchant for cash (or keep as BCH)
  3. Pay 0.5% fee only if cashing out (free if keeping BCH)

Mode: Active initially - claims BCH and finds merchant. Can become passive seller later.

Note: While remittances are typically cross-border (Spain → Venezuela), domestic remittances also work with the same mechanism. Cross-border is the primary use case due to high traditional fees.

Step-by-Step: Elena Receives €100 from María

1. Receive Notification

2. Decision Point: Keep BCH or Cash Out?

Option A: Claim to Wallet (Free)

Option B: Cash Out at Merchant (0.5% fee)

3. Find Merchant on Bulletin Board (If Cashing Out)

4. Receive Payment Instructions via Nostr

5. Meet at Carlos’s Store

6. Execute Trade

7. Complete

Merchant stability incentive: Carlos can now stabilize the BCH into H€ (Euro-pegged) or HAu (gold-pegged) tokens, preserving its value against volatility. This is the core incentive that makes merchants want to accept Asgaya - they accumulate stable value, not volatile BCH. See Merchant Journey for details on the triple-dip economics and stability layer.

Total time: 5 minutes (notification to claim) + 30 min (travel to Carlos) = 35 minutes
Total cost: €0.50 (0.5% recipient fee) if cashing out, FREE if keeping BCH

Active vs Passive

Elena as Active Seller (Current)

Elena as Passive Seller (Future)

If Elena receives remittances regularly, she can become passive:

Transition: Active recipient → Passive seller (earn instead of pay fees)

Critical growth mechanism: This transition is essential for Asgaya’s expansion. Without recipients becoming passive liquidity providers, growth could stall.

Elena’s dual role (Phase 0+):

This creates a self-sustaining liquidity cycle where recipients graduate into traders, eliminating dependency on external liquidity providers.

Economics: Why Elena Uses Asgaya

Cost Comparison

Method Fee Time
Western Union €5 (5% paid by María) 1-2 days + travel to pickup
Bank transfer €8-15 (8-15%) + VES bank fee 3-5 days
Asgaya €1 total (0.5% María + 0.5% Elena) 35 minutes

Benefits

Why Keep BCH Instead of Cashing Out?

Scenario: Elena Keeps BCH in Wallet

Benefits:

  1. Zero fees - no 0.5% cash-out fee
  2. Hedge against VES inflation - BCH is more stable than VES (ironic but true)
  3. Spend directly - if Carlos accepts BCH for groceries, skip cash entirely
  4. Accumulate - save in BCH, cash out later in bulk

Risks:

  1. BCH volatility - price can swing ±20% monthly
  2. Need VES - rent is due in VES, not BCH

Elena’s strategy:

What Prevents Fraud?

Two Paths, Two Security Models

Option A (Keep BCH): Elena claims directly to her wallet. No fraud risk - she owns the BCH.

Option B (Cash Out at Merchant): Direct covenant cash-out with co-signatures. This is where fraud prevention matters.

Carlos Can’t Steal Elena’s BCH (Cash-Out Path)

Key insight: Covenant requires Elena AND Carlos to co-sign before releasing BCH.

Flow:

  1. Elena selects “Cash Out” → BCH stays in María’s covenant (Elena doesn’t claim it)
  2. Elena picks Carlos from bulletin board
  3. Both meet in person at Carlos’s store
  4. Carlos verifies covenant on-chain (€100 worth of BCH locked)
  5. Carlos hands Elena 45,000 VES cash
  6. Elena signs covenant release (confirms she received payment)
  7. Carlos signs covenant receipt (confirms he’s receiving BCH)
  8. Covenant releases BCH directly to Carlos’s wallet
  9. Elena never held the BCH - it went straight from María’s covenant to Carlos

If Carlos tries to cheat:

If Elena tries to cheat:

Why this works:

Critical architectural detail: The direct covenant cash-out (Elena never claims BCH to her wallet) preserves on-chain provenance. This allows Carlos to mint H€/HAu tokens from remittance-sourced BCH, which is the core merchant incentive. If Elena claimed first, then sold to Carlos, the provenance would be lost and Carlos couldn’t mint. This is a deliberate architectural trade-off: merchant incentive > two-transaction compliance separation.

Edge Cases

What if no merchant is nearby?

Scenario: Elena lives in rural area, no BCH buyers listed on bulletin board.

Options:

  1. Keep BCH - claim to wallet, cash out later when traveling to city
  2. Remote trade - find passive trader with PagoMĂłvil (sends VES digitally)
  3. Become passive seller - post listing, wait for buyers to come to her

Long-term: As Asgaya grows, more merchants post listings → rural coverage improves

Phase 0+ priority: Encourage at least one passive BCH buyer/seller with PagoMóvil payment option. Ideal candidate: Venezuelan with VES income (e.g., landlord collecting rent) who wants to preserve purchasing power via H€/HAu. They’re highly motivated to provide liquidity and serve rural recipients remotely.

What if BCH price crashes before cash-out?

Two stages of volatility exposure:

Stage 1: María → Elena covenant (protected by 7% buffer)

Stage 2: After Elena claims (Elena’s choice)

Mitigation:

Key insight: Covenant protects María → Elena. After Elena claims, volatility risk transfers to Elena.

What if Elena and Carlos can’t meet in person?

Scenario: Elena is sick, can’t travel to Carlos’s store.

Options:

  1. Passive trader with PagoMĂłvil - find someone offering remote cash-out (most practical)
  2. Elena waits - covenant doesn’t expire for 24 hours (8 hours Phase 0)
  3. Elena keeps BCH - claim to wallet, cash out later
  4. Carlos delivers - unlikely unless €1000+ worth, and even then poses safety risk (Carlos travels with large cash amount, leaves shop unattended)

Reality: Passive BCH buyers/sellers with PagoMĂłvil will naturally fill this remote settlement role, making merchant delivery unnecessary.

User Experience Flow

[Elena's Phone]
  ↓
1. Notification: "€100 from María"
  ↓
2. Open wallet → See pending covenant
  ↓
3. Decision: Keep BCH (free) OR Cash out (0.5% fee)
  ↓
[If Keep BCH]
  4a. Tap "Claim to Wallet" → Done (BCH in wallet)
  
[If Cash Out]
  4b. Tap "Find Merchant" → Query bulletin board
  ↓
5. Select Carlos → Receive payment instructions via Nostr
  ↓
6. Travel to Carlos's store (2km, 15 min)
  ↓
7. Tell Carlos "Cash out remittance" → Carlos types Elena#123
  ↓
8. Carlos taps "Accept cash-out" → Hands 45,000 VES
  ↓
9. Both tap "Confirm" → Co-sign covenant
  ↓
10. BCH moves to Carlos → Reputation auto-increments
  ↓
[Done - Elena has VES cash]

Recipient → Passive Seller Transition

When Elena Receives Regularly

If MarĂ­a sends money every month, Elena can optimize:

Current (Active):

Optimized (Passive Seller):

How to transition:

  1. Claim several remittances to build reputation
  2. Post passive listing on bulletin board
  3. Wait for merchants to contact her
  4. App handles matching automatically

Elena becomes a micro-liquidity provider - earns fees on remittance flow

Technical Details

For implementation details, see:

For rationale, see:

Next Steps

After receiving, Elena might want to:

Intermediation pattern (highly likely): Elena’s neighbors also receive money from Spain. Elena offers to cash out their remittances at Carlos’s store in exchange for a small fee. This effectively uses the customer payment flow and creates organic growth - one tech-savvy recipient enables 5-10 less tech-savvy neighbors to benefit from Asgaya.

Related journeys:

Status: Phase 0 (Pre-Launch) - Q3 2026 Spain → Venezuela corridor
Updated: 2026-06-24

🏠 Home ↑ Remittance 📖 Glossary

Related: Sender

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