71–80 of 146 posts
As an aside, the taler (or thaler) is an old German-and-surrounding-regions coin that’s the root etymology for the word “dollar”.
And the word thaler is a shortened version of Joachimsthaler. Joachimsthal was the place where the silver for the coins was mined. And the second part of that, thal, is cognate with English dale.
People should know that 1. it's not based on any kind of blockchain, 2. it's not a currency, it's a payment system which you could use to transfer other currencies (euro, dollar, ...) and 3. unlike most blockchain-based currencies it offers anonymity (only for buyers, not for sellers, though)
5. this "cash" has an expiration date, which is chosen at the whim of the central bank. If you stuff it in your mattress like paper cash, it becomes worthless. Therefore, this scheme is a massive step backwards in terms of central bank control over our lives, relative to coins-and-banknotes.
If this takes off, it will affect only a small slice of our economic relations, and it will affect that slice for the worse, not for the better.
I'm disappointed that Tanja Lange was willing to associate herself with this.
> This payment system is different from current online payment methods, like credit cards or bank transfers, in that it offers privacy for the buyer: neither merchants nor banks can trace or link the payments. Banks will love a solution that completely prevents them from implementing KYC/AML regulation they are required to follow. Truly baffling that such a project manages, if their claims are true, to get public fun…
Tbh, the hit to omniscient funds traceability is not that different from what some financial institutions started to accept with Stablecoins already, i.e. a model where KYC/AML happens at the edges but not within the transaction graph itself. It's pleasantly surprising to see this model getting acceptance in the regulatory spheres.
The only way this gains regulatory acceptance is if the KYC/AML regulation is moved to the audited exchange - I.E. less friction for authorities to get transaction informations, not more.
How will the onramp look like? I guess they'll have to do KYC when taking in money?
What software can be used to use it?
If I could rig my browser to pay 1 cent for every newspaper article I read, I would happily do so. The biggest issue with paying for news is that you are reduced to a small handful of sources. I would like to read a couple of articles from a hundred sources, not a hundred articles from one source. Not sure this platform solves the problem, but it would be a game changer if it did.
Yeah, it's weird that no one ever made that model work. I think it was tried?
They did not like the idea. They very much more like the idea of owning the customer and keeping the customer paying subscriptions.
I also know of a media outlet which incentivizes customer to go from credit card payment to automated bank transfers, since credit cards expire every x years but the bank transfer goes on forever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, GNU Taler doesn't use a blockchain, as a blockchain cannot actually implement digital cash. In a blockchain, transactions are necessarily centralized — on a distributed ledger maintained using a peer-to-peer protocol, but the transactions themselves are still account-based —, so they are effectively equivalent to wire transfers, i.e., just accounting entries: they cannot take place between two offline parties…
I’m confused. Why do they say in their FAQ that peer-to-peer payments only appear as such, and actually need to go through a payment provider? https://taler.net/en/faq.html
So in that sense it is quite different from the account or UTXO logic that most cryptocurrencies use, where balances can be transferred between accounts indefinitely. I think it's interesting to think about what problems it solves - it semi-solves anonymity in a way that might be acceptable for lawmakers and that doesn't require a backdoor (the more typical approach for 'compliant privacy'). The question is whether that is enough utility gain for regular users to justify the overhead - it seems like a simple transaction requires quite a lot of steps, key management is a non-trivial burden (for users who might not even be used to password managers eg),...
My question is: How does the average Jane and Joe benefits compared to Debit and Credit Cards? Privacy, they do not care. Being anonymous, they do not care. So a dead initiative?
My understanding here is that the main objective is to break up the MasterCard/Visa duopoly. I guess breaking up duopolies is always a win for the general public, no?
So not replacing MasterCard/Visa especially as that requires a lot to be able to accept payments.
People should know that 1. it's not based on any kind of blockchain, 2. it's not a currency, it's a payment system which you could use to transfer other currencies (euro, dollar, ...) and 3. unlike most blockchain-based currencies it offers anonymity (only for buyers, not for sellers, though)
4. the central bank gets to decide how much "cash" each individual deserves to have at any given point in time. All of the proposals I've heard set that limit at less than one month's apartment rent in most EU cities. Therefore, this scheme is not competing with any form of money or payment besides coins-and-banknotes. 5. this "cash" has an expiration date, which is chosen at the whim of the central bank. If you stuf…
The central bank controls how many bills are in circulation, and the central bank regularly expires old bills and coins.
Where is the balance in my wallet stored? Your wallet stores digital coins and thus ultimately your computer holds your balance. The exchange keeps funds matching all unspent coins in a settlement account. What if my wallet is lost? Since the digital coins of value in your wallet are anonymized, the exchange can not assist you in recovering a lost or stolen wallet. Just like with a physical wallet for cash, you are r…
My question is: How does the average Jane and Joe benefits compared to Debit and Credit Cards? Privacy, they do not care. Being anonymous, they do not care. So a dead initiative?
You can't pay your average person with a Debit or Credit card Edit: yes I am familiar with the various 'sending money to people' systems in Europe, but they don't rely on a debit card for the most part, rather, your bank account
What do these 'sending money to people' systems do more than that?