On Decency

Feb 07, 2025

Branta’s mission is to enhance Bitcoin as Medium of Exchange.

Guardrail is an elegant way for people to verify where their money is going, before hitting “send.” With this, decency has been built into Guardrail from day one.

We are obsessed with:

Improving UX on P2P digital cash
Guaranteeing where your money is going
Knowing bare minimum about others

And?

Guardrail involves four parties:

Payee
Payer
The Platform (if using a payment gateway)
Branta

Branta is given information from Platform or Payee about the invoice. This is at discretion of the Platform or Payee - typically Merchant Name and a short Note (“Nakamoto Store”, “Order 123”, etc), as well as an onchain address or BOLT-11.

Branta does not track, sell or record addresses - every record is permanently deleted after a set expiration.

Our servers see IP address when someone visits Branta - the same IP address that the Payee or Platform already sees.

Branta cannot determine who paid an invoice.

We encourage VPNs and TOR.

Things we never know

Social Profiles
Name of person paying
Email, phone, other handles
Location
Browser Type
Desktop vs Mobile
Public or Private Keys

Scraping

On-Chain

The mempool is “scrapable” by design.

Branta has technical measures to prevent scraping.

Additionally, Guardrail allows wrapping to prevent direct lookups.

All verifications are permanently removed after a certain time.

Lightning

Same applies, minus scraping.

Tracking, Analytics

Client Side

Guardrail has zero analytics or tracking.

Our Verify Links load 3 resources:

HTML Document
SVG Logos
PNG Favicon

No javascript is used. Check an example: https://payments.branta.pro/v1/verify/3JLxtVGrPVxvSZWLMi97sZyLsv1Da58Skz

Branta Links are ultra lightweight for mobile and low-bandwidth scenarios.

Server Side

Once payments expire, we delete them forever.

Our tech stack is ultra stripped down and robustly tested.

Coda

Why introduce Branta?

Branta protects platforms against technical error and attacks
Branta protects users against bad devices, networks and phishing
Branta has a siloed tech stack/domain and CA from our Platforms.

Branta doesn’t need or want your data. We just want you to not lose your money.

Let’s enter an era of confidence.

An era without test-transactions.

Keith