| Developer(s) | Christian Grothoff and Florian Dold |
|---|---|
| Preview release | 0.9[1] 
/ 4 November 2022 |
| Repository | git |
| Type | Microtransaction and electronic payment |
| License | Clients: GPL-3.0-or-later[2][3] Servers: AGPL-3.0-or-later Libraries: LGPL-2.1-or-later |
| Website | taler |
GNU Taler is a free software-based microtransaction and electronic payment system.[4][5] Unlike most other decentralized payment systems, GNU Taler does not use a blockchain.[6] 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.[6]
The project is led by Florian Dold and Christian Grothoff[7] of Taler Systems SA. Taler is short for the "Taxable Anonymous Libre Economic Reserves"[8][9] and alludes to the Taler coins in Germany during the Early Modern period. It has vocal support from GNU Project founder Richard Stallman.[10] Stallman has described the program as "designed to be anonymous for the payer, but payees are always identified."[11] 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.[12][13] An implementation is provided by Taler Systems SA.[14][15]
