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.
Current Platforms are private businesses. Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, they’re all private businesses that can do whatever they want. This means that 1 They all charge a lot of money (I think 1-5% of the purchase) 2.1 since they’re all american the new Führer can turn off digital payments for a Business or even an entire Country he doesn’t like. And the way he uses every single leverage he can get to get others agree to his terms, this seems realistic. 2.2 since they’re private businesses with a quasi-monopoly on digital payments, they can threaten our economies if we try to do something they don’t like, say raising taxes on them or limiting how much they can charge. A Taler by the national bank would be completely sovereign and make us independent from the US and its companies.
The Taler also has the advantage that the buyer is anonymous. So if you want to buy a Dildo without the seller, the bank, the government or even your family knowing, you can. If you delete the payment from your history then there is no proof at all that that payment came from you (well, your shipping address is on the package, but that’s not something the Taler can solve lol). However, different from other crypto currencies, the seller is NOT anonymous, which prevents tax evasion.
Hope that cleared it up?
an additional note: part of why is it not perfect is that you can’t send money privately to another person, like you would do with cash. in transactions like that there is a 3rd party involved that overses the transaction
Solving tax evasion while keeping both parties anonymous would be incredibly hard if not outright impossible though. Cash is king for privacy but also for tax evasion.
I don’t think any digital solution could or should replace cash. They can and should exist and function together.
Is this a flaw of Taler or the businesses like Visa?
I dont see how would it be a flaw of visa, but according to the Taler FAQ this is a feature.
It would be a flaw of visa as you need a card reader or similar to recieve payments, your friend can’t just send you a fiver easily.
That’s definitely something that gets listed as an advantage of The Digital Euro, and something that you can’t do with Visa (although you can with PayPal), so if expect that Taler supports it.
I was just playing around with their demo, and person to person transcations are supported. If you send me your username I can send you 50 kudos (fake money for the demo).
https://demo.taler.net/en/
I actually haven’t been able to try sending money yet lol
taler://pay-pull/exchange.demo.taler.net/22PZCE789NDRY45H313P5HJYN79ACRX45FYA69ZVYK35WTSX3770
Ok, pretty sure I managed to send you 2.5 kudos.
Dang, that worked. Wanna try the reverse?
Sure: taler://pay-pull/exchange.demo.taler.net/DGEEWNJDK1TKCRWP8803ASGSF0KX1FKEN9XR1420BQFT4E6S9EWG