A little clarity.
Before you begin.

Chama helps people trade Bitcoin and local money, buy and sell goods, pay community bills, and form savings circles. You agree with other people; the software records the terms and coordinates escrow. There is no central Chama account server.

Open getchama.app for the web app, get Android through Zapstore, or find desktop builds on GitHub Releases. A StartOS package is also available. chama.community is the public website, not your wallet.

Review the quote before committing. A seller’s premium is part of their price; federation, network, payout-provider, or dispute fees can also apply. Eligible trades offer an optional arbiter premium of 0.25% per side to the bonded arbiter seated in that trade, subject to a minimum note size. It is not a guarantee of reimbursement. The app shows the applicable amounts and choices.

Create a Nostr identity in the app or use an existing one. Your npub is public; your nsec is the secret signing key. Save the secret securely and never send it to a counterparty or someone offering support. There is no email password-reset service.

Your country and currency help organize prices, listings, and local payment methods. The federation is the separate service that issues the ecash used for a trade. An offer can use a different federation from yours; follow the app’s routing checks before funding it. Browsing elsewhere does not move your sats.

Yes. Open the sandbox. It uses a mock wallet, and its trades are separated from real-money trades. Circle test drives offer a ten-minute round: five minutes to gather members and five to run. Return to the normal app address for real trades. Sandbox sats have no monetary value.

Choose “Save it together” on the home canvas. Start a circle, paste an invite link, or browse open circles. Before joining, check the share amount, minimum membership, fill deadline, and end date. “Just us” circles are shared by invite and hidden from Browse; an invite is not a guarantee of confidentiality.

The current circle is fill-or-refund. Members lock equal shares. If enough members lock before the deadline, the round runs to its end; otherwise it fails to fill. In either case, each member’s share becomes refundable under the circle rules. Tap Claim when your refund is ready. Funding and payout fees can reduce what arrives in your external wallet.

Not in the current release. Rotating collection is planned, with supporting protocol readers already in the code. Its creation flow and the host’s own seat remain disabled. Today the host organizes the circle and members recover their own shares. Starting another round does not enable rotating payouts.

The roster shows who has claimed and who can claim. The host can prepare another round with the previous terms, or use “Run it again” after a failed fill. Check the new dates and share amount before publishing. Every new round needs new participation; an earlier lock does not fund it.

Choose what you have and what you need, find an offer, and review the terms and arbiter together. The Bitcoin side is funded into escrow; the other payment or delivery happens as agreed between the parties. Confirm only what actually happened. A valid settlement is followed by a separate claim and payout step.

For a standard ecash trade, two of the three participants — buyer, seller, and the seated arbiter — must agree on a valid outcome. The arbiter cannot settle alone. Buyer and seller normally settle together; the arbiter can help with disagreement or protocol-defined expiry recovery. This does not guarantee honest delivery or eliminate collusion risk.

Before funding, cancellation does not require recovering locked sats. After funding, a refund needs the required agreement and a valid settlement. Requesting a refund is not the same as receiving one. Keep delivery and payment evidence, and use the trade’s dispute controls if the parties disagree.

No. An on-chain payout sends your claimed funds to a Bitcoin address. Optional on-chain escrow locks the trade itself in a Bitcoin output with cooperative, dispute, and timed refund paths. Confirmations and network fees apply; read the specific terms before choosing it.

Use the funding options shown for the trade. When settlement is ready, choose a supported claim destination: a Lightning invoice or address, a connected Nostr Wallet Connect wallet, an ecash export, or on-chain Bitcoin where available. A claim-ready status means there is still something to collect; it does not mean the destination has been paid.

Where supported, the claim picker offers local payout services, including M-Pesa routes for Kenya. Availability, quotes, limits, fees, and delivery times depend on the provider. Some routes open a separate service. Check its terms and the final quote; local cash paid to a trading partner is separate from Bitcoin escrow funding.

Do not assume a timeout means failure. Check the receiving wallet and let Chama reconcile the pending operation. A request can succeed even when its response is lost. Use the recovery or retry action the app offers after checking the status; do not create a second payment to “unstick” the first.

No. It restores your identity, not every piece of wallet data. Browser ecash is stored on that device; native clients and a StartOS bridge keep separate wallet state. Protect both your identity key and any exported ecash or recovery files. Do not clear site data, reinstall, or discard a wallet while funds or operations remain unresolved.

Chama is designed for escrow and payout, not long-term savings in an app balance. But local wallets can hold funds, fee reserves, or unfinished claims between actions. Claim or export completed payouts promptly and verify their arrival. Fedimint ecash also depends on the chosen federation’s guardians and availability.

Public listings and some event metadata travel over Nostr relays. Sensitive escrow payloads and trade chat use encryption, but that does not hide all participants, timing, or public activity. Share only the payment and delivery information needed. Relays, federations, and external payout providers have their own trust and availability boundaries.

Reconnect and inspect the existing trade and payout status. A slow relay can leave the view incomplete; an uncertain payout needs reconciliation. Keep the original device and recovery material. Before reporting a problem on GitHub, remove secret keys, bearer notes, payment credentials, and personal details.