GNU Taler
Developer(s)Christian Grothoff and Florian Dold
Repositorygit.taler.net
TypeMicrotransaction and electronic payment
LicenseClients: GPL-3.0-or-later[1][2]
Servers: AGPL-3.0-or-later
Libraries: LGPL-2.1-or-later
Websitetaler.net

GNU Taler is a free software-based microtransaction and electronic payment system.[3][4] Unlike most other decentralized payment systems, GNU Taler does not use a blockchain.[5] A blind signature is used to protect the privacy of users as it prevents the exchange from knowing which coin it signed for which customer.[5]

The project is led by Florian Dold and Christian Grothoff[6] of Taler Systems SA. Taler is short for the "Taxable Anonymous Libre Economic Reserves"[7][8] and alludes to the Taler coins in Germany during the Early Modern period. It has vocal support from GNU Project founder Richard Stallman.[9] Stallman has described the program as "designed to be anonymous for the payer, but payees are always identified."[10] In a paper published in Security, Privacy, and Applied Cryptography Engineering, GNU Taler is described as meeting ethical considerations – the paying customer is anonymous while the merchant is identified and taxable.[11][12] An implementation is provided by Taler Systems SA.[13][14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Taler licensing information".
  2. ^ "Taler - Free Software Directory".
  3. ^ "GNU Taler 0.0.0 Released: GNU Tries To Get Into Electronic Payments".
  4. ^ "GNU cryptocurrency aims at 'the mainstream economy not the black market'". The Register.
  5. ^ a b "FAQ: How is Taler related to Bitcoin or Blockchains?".
  6. ^ "GNU Taler: Ethical Online Payments for the Internet Age". ercim-news.ercim.eu. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  7. ^ Sprint, Book (2016-05-19). Cost of Freedom. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-365-08698-4.
  8. ^ "Halbanonymes Bezahlsystem: GNU Taler soll Kryptowährungen gerechter machen - Golem.de". www.golem.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-01-03.
  9. ^ "Stallman's final interview as FSF president: Last week we quizzed him over Microsoft visit. Now he quits top roles amid rape remarks outcry". The Register.
  10. ^ "A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe". TheGuardian.com. 3 April 2018.
  11. ^ Carlet, Claude; Hasan, M. Anwar; Saraswat, Vishal (2016-12-09). Security, Privacy, and Applied Cryptography Engineering: 6th International Conference, SPACE 2016, Hyderabad, India, December 14-18, 2016, Proceedings. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-49445-6.
  12. ^ Dold, Florian (2019-02-25). The GNU Taler system : practical and provably secure electronic payments (phdthesis thesis). Université Rennes 1.
  13. ^ Pentland, Alex 'Sandy'. "Digital cash and privacy: What are the alternatives to Libra?". MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  14. ^ "Kampf der Kryptowährungen – das sind die Alternativen zu Libra". www.netzwoche.ch (in German). Retrieved 2020-01-03.

External links

GNU Project
Cryptocurrencies
Categories