Webcash (WEB)

Webcash (WEB) is an experimental electronic cash protocol launched in 2021 by Bryan Bishop (@kanzure), a longtime Bitcoin Core contributor and cryptography researcher. Rather than using a traditional account-based ledger, Webcash transfers value through a claim-based replacement model: a spendable token is a self-contained string that the sender copies and pastes directly to the recipient. Once the recipient inserts the string into their wallet, the original token is replaced and invalidated, preventing double-spending without requiring a shared transaction history between parties.

The protocol relies on a central server to verify claims and enforce the monetary supply schedule, though the design is intended as a research platform for exploring Chaumian-style e-cash with modern primitives. Webcash is mined using Proof-of-Work across a fixed supply cap of 210,000,000,000 WEB, mirroring Bitcoin issuance model. Five percent of each mined block goes to the server operator as a protocol fee. As of 2024, the network had entered epoch 10, with a per-block mining reward of approximately 195 WEB. Circulation is near-complete relative to the hard cap.

Because there are no accounts or addresses, Webcash wallets are essentially collections of unspent token strings. Users can run a Python-based CLI wallet, a browser-based wallet at webcasa.app, or manage tokens manually via a paper wallet interface. The project remains in an experimental research phase with a small but active community on Discord. It is operated by Webcash LLC, a Wyoming company, and its source code is available on GitHub under the kanzure/webcash repository.