FAQ
Which wallets work?
Any browser wallet that supports the Wallet Standard and signs Solana transactions of version 1. The app lists the wallets your browser has and marks the ones that don't sign version 1 yet. USB hardware wallets are not offered.
What do I need in my wallet?
USDC to deposit, and a little SOL for network fees and rent: your key record and account hold rent while they exist, and each note you send holds rent until its payee accepts it, when it comes back to you.
Does Hindsight charge a fee?
One: 5 basis points on deposits and withdrawals, whose amounts are public anyway. Confidential payments between balances carry none. All of the fee is the protocol's: it buys $HIND on the market, and the program burns what it buys. See fees and settlement.
Do I need $HIND to pay or get paid?
No. You deposit, pay, accept and withdraw in USDC. $HIND is where the protocol's fees go.
Who can see my payment amounts?
You, the payee and the pool's auditor. Anyone reading the chain sees who paid whom and when, and a 32-byte commitment in place of the amount. See how privacy works.
What does "Q-Day" mean here?
The day a quantum computer can recover a private key from its public key. Chain data is public and permanent, so a payment made today can be read on that day if its amount sits on chain under a key such a computer breaks. Hindsight puts amounts on chain only as commitments that hide them perfectly, and seals each opening with ML-KEM-768 alongside X25519.
Are deposits and withdrawals private?
No. USDC entering or leaving the pool moves through public token accounts, so those amounts are public. What stays confidential is everything in between: your balance, and every payment you send or receive inside the pool.
I switched browsers. Where is my balance?
Your balance is on chain, but opening it needs your keys, which live in the browser that created them. Restore your key backup on the new browser from the Account page, and your balance and inbox come back. A browser without your keys sees your account but not its amounts.
How do I back up my keys?
On the Account page, choose a passphrase of at least 12 characters and download the backup. The file holds your keys encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key stretched from your passphrase with 600,000 rounds of PBKDF2-SHA256. Your wallet and the service never hold your keys, so keep the file and its passphrase as you would a wallet's recovery phrase.
A payment in my inbox says its envelope does not open.
Its sender's envelope doesn't match the note's commitment, so the app won't accept it. Choose Return: the note goes back to its sender, who can accept it with the opening they kept.
How long does a payee have to accept?
Until the pool's return timeout passes, shown on fees and settlement. Until then, only the payee can accept or return the note. After it, the sender can also take it back.
Why do I have to wait for the auditor?
In a pool that requires attestation, a note can be accepted only after the auditor has opened its own envelope, checked it against the commitment and attested it on chain. It usually takes seconds.
Can I pay someone who hasn't used Hindsight?
They need an account in the pool first: connect a wallet in the app and choose Register and open. The app tells you when a payee has no account yet.