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Transferability and Acceptance

A Clear Mint Note is designed to move between holders. That does not mean every wallet can use it from every network, or that every person or organization has agreed to accept it.

Clear keeps three questions separate:

  1. Where is it available for transfer?
  2. Will the recipient accept it?
  3. Who stands behind it?

Availability

A wallet can describe the current practical availability boundary in three simple ways.

Within this instance

Usable by members within one Mainstay instance. The mint and delivery services are available to that instance.

On the local network

Usable between participating instances over shared local infrastructure. Internet access is not required.

Across networks

The mint and recipient provide routes intended to work outside one local service environment. The receiving wallet still decides whether to accept the CMU.

All Clear bearer transfers remain cryptographically private. Privacy is separate from the availability boundary and is therefore not used as an availability label.

This availability is not permanently attached to the Mint Notes. A mint can add, replace, or withdraw a route without changing its keyset, CMU, or outstanding notes. Wallets derive the label from the routes available for a particular transfer.

"Across networks" does not mean public, global, universally available, or accepted. A private inter-community network may cross network boundaries too.

Acceptance is a separate decision

A recipient may accept a locally transferable CMU from a known community and decline a cross-network CMU from an unfamiliar issuer. Technical validity and reachability do not make that decision for them.

Acceptance may depend on:

  • the organization or community standing behind the CMU;
  • what the issuer promises to provide on redemption;
  • the recipient's relationship with that issuer;
  • any limits, expiry terms, or participating providers; and
  • the recipient's own wallet or organizational policy.

Being served by the same mint installation does not make two CMUs equivalent. They may have different keysets, treasurers, policies, liabilities, and circles of recognition.

Authority remains visible

The treasurer authorizes routine issuance and liability actions for a CMU under its policy. The mint operator keeps the Clear service working. The service identity establishes which mint is being reached. These are distinct roles.

A useful wallet presentation keeps them distinct too:

Availability: Across networks
Treasurer: Community Treasury
Recognition: Recognized locally

When recognition evidence is unavailable, the wallet should say so rather than treating reachability as trust:

Availability: Across networks
Treasurer: Not verified
Recognition: Not established

A familiar historical pattern

There is a limited parallel with the Florentine florin. It was issued by Florence but became recognized for trade well beyond Florence. Issuance, circulation, and voluntary acceptance were related without being identical. The British Museum Money Gallery guide notes that the florin and Venetian ducat were recognized and trusted as trading currencies throughout Europe.

Clear uses modern cryptographic bearer notes rather than precious-metal coins, so the analogy should not be carried too far. The useful idea is that a unit issued under one bounded authority can travel farther when other people choose to recognize it. Wider circulation does not erase the identity or responsibility of its issuer.

Read How Clear Is Governed to understand the currency root, mint operator, and treasurer roles, or Mint Notes and CMU for the identifiers that keep different Clear balances separate.