GNU Taler begins operating in Switzerland, distributed by the Taler Operations AG. Gnu Taler aims to be a “digital wallet” and has been used by the swiss national bank as well as the european national bank as a example for how a digital currency handed out by the state could work. It aims to be as privacy preserving as cash for the buyer while not allowing the seller to evade taxes.
Currently the Taler is brought out by a special organisation, the “Taler Operations AG”, and not the national bank, although both the national bank as well as the Taler Team have shown interest in a official digial currency by the national bank based on the Taler. But we need to relativate as the national council has stated that the introduction of a digital currency would probably take relatively major legislative changes and therefore take a bit of time.
Sadly, it still requires a Swiss bank for merchants. More visa/stripe than Btc. “ Prerequisites Here is what you need to get started to integrate Taler as a payment option into your payment process: Swiss bank account, ideally with support for EBICS 🔗. Taler merchant backend 🔗 configured with your Swiss IBAN number.”
I’m honestly surprised that it’s possible already, I thought we’d be years away until it’s actually usable.