commit 2e1fe308e1f4d7bf1ebb234c4f238511b3c6ac59
parent 6afb93fda0f44c415bc3f3cdf390e9edddb2575b
Author: Christian Grothoff <christian@grothoff.org>
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2019 01:42:42 +0100
vision
Diffstat:
| A | 2019-osf/taler.md | | | 66 | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
| A | 2019-osf/taler.tex | | | 72 | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
2 files changed, 138 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/2019-osf/taler.md b/2019-osf/taler.md
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+GNU Taler: A Digital Cash Commons
+
+Economic activity is central to modern life, but with the disappearance of
+physical cash the monetary foundation for our economy is privatized.
+Contemporary trends are frightening: mass-surveillance is enabled by tracking
+consumers though payments, payment processors can and do impose economic death
+sentences on NGOs, business or individuals they disagree with, and oligopolies
+established by Big Tech charge excessive rent on their platforms in the form
+of high transaction fees. Alternative currencies using blockchains are mostly
+renowned for impractically low transaction rates, excessive energy consumption
+and virtually exclusive use for speculation and criminal transactions.
+
+With GNU Taler, we are creating an electronic payment system that is Free
+Software and (according to experts) compatible with existing regulations,
+including KYC, AML and GDPR. Payments are processed in existing currencies
+like Euros or Dollars. Taler offers customers privacy when they spend their
+electronic cash, but at the same time ensures that income is transparent to
+the state (facilitating anti-corruption and tax-collection efforts). Taler
+scales to millions of transactions per second, and is also environmentally
+responsible due to transaction costs substantially below those of cash or
+credit cards. As a result, consumers will finally be able to make
+micropayments. This will provide an alternative for funding of online
+journalists, bloggers and content creators, relieving their current dependence
+on advertisement revenue for their income. As a reserve-based system, Taler
+also has advantages for economically disadvantaged populations, as consumers
+need neither a bank account nor credit-worthiness. Our Free Software
+implementation can be modified to accomodate disabled people and to include
+educational features to teach users financial responsibility. Parents will be
+able to set budgets and restrict purchases of their children to
+age-appropriate goods and services.
+
+Taler's core technology is implemented and documented
+(https://docs.taler.net/) by the GNUnet (e.V.) community and Taler Systems SA
+(a business we founded to provide commercial support). We integrated the
+payment system with various demonstrator applications, from Web shops (such as
+WooCommerce) to in-person payments via QR code or NFC. The Taler wallet is
+available as a WebExtension for Chrome, Firefox and Brave, and also as an App
+for Android. There are ongoing discussions with several central banks (ECB,
+SNB) about the use of Taler as a CBDC. We also have a German community bank
+partnering with us to bring the system into commercial operation. Several
+organizations (like the Tor Project and various publishers) have signed
+letters of intent to deploy Taler as soon as we have regulatory approval and
+are in operation. A demo of online services that use GNU Taler for payments
+is available at https://demo.taler.net/.
+
+For regulatory approval, we need to still enhance the wallet with backup
+functionality, improve the documentation, and find a way to fund independent
+security audits. Additional funding is sought to port the Taler wallet to
+further platforms, add financial education features that analyze a user's
+spending on their own device, improve the documentation, and to translate our
+user interfaces into more languages.
+
+We will deploy the Taler system inside the University of Applied Sciences in
+Bern for internal payments in Q1 2020. After this small-scale operation that
+requires no regulatory approval, we will complete the integration with the
+German bank and proceed to document the system for regulatory approval. Once
+approved, we will launch the system with our media partners. Various
+non-profits have already signalled their support (Wau Holland Foundation,
+Renewable Freedom Foundation, DigitalCourage, as well as many individual
+Ashoka fellows, including people involved with Wikipedia and Change.org).
+After the launch, we will work in parallel on the integration with more and
+more platforms and also continue to push the development of the consumer's
+wallet (financial education, accessibility, translation). If we can show
+significant up-take, we envision to eventually transition the system to become
+a centrally banked digital currency operated by the respective central bank
+as legal tender.
diff --git a/2019-osf/taler.tex b/2019-osf/taler.tex
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+\documentclass{article}
+\usepackage[a4paper,total={6in,8in}]{geometry}
+\begin{document}
+\thispagestyle{empty}
+\begin{center}
+ {\large GNU Taler: A Digital Cash Commons}
+\end{center}
+Economic activity is central to modern life, but with the disappearance of
+physical cash the monetary foundation for our economy is privatized.
+Contemporary trends are frightening: mass-surveillance is enabled by tracking
+consumers though payments, payment processors can and do impose economic death
+sentences on NGOs, business or individuals they disagree with, and oligopolies
+established by Big Tech charge excessive rent on their platforms in the form
+of high transaction fees. Alternative currencies using blockchains are mostly
+renowned for impractically low transaction rates, excessive energy consumption
+and virtually exclusive use for speculation and criminal transactions.
+
+With GNU Taler, we are creating an electronic payment system that is Free
+Software and (according to experts) compatible with existing regulations,
+including KYC, AML and GDPR. Payments are processed in existing currencies
+like Euros. Taler offers customers privacy when they spend their
+electronic cash, but at the same time ensures that income is transparent to
+the state (facilitating anti-corruption and tax-collection efforts). Taler
+scales to millions of transactions per second, and is also environmentally
+responsible due to transaction costs substantially below those of cash or
+credit cards. As a result, consumers will finally be able to make
+micropayments. This will provide an alternative for funding of online
+journalists, bloggers and content creators, relieving their current dependence
+on advertisement revenue for their income. As a reserve-based system, Taler
+also has advantages for economically disadvantaged populations, as consumers
+need neither a bank account nor credit-worthiness. Our Free Software
+implementation can be modified to accomodate disabled people and to include
+educational features to teach users financial responsibility. Parents will be
+able to set budgets and restrict purchases of their children to
+age-appropriate goods and services.
+
+Taler's core technology is implemented and documented
+(https://docs.taler.net/) by the GNUnet (e.V.) community and Taler Systems SA
+(a business we founded to provide commercial support). We integrated the
+payment system with various demonstrator applications, from Web shops (such as
+WooCommerce) to in-person payments via QR code or NFC. The Taler wallet is
+available as a WebExtension for Chrome, Firefox and Brave, and also as an App
+for Android. There are ongoing discussions with several central banks (ECB,
+SNB) about the use of Taler as a CBDC. We also have a German community bank
+partnering with us to bring the system into commercial operation. Several
+organizations (like the Tor Project and various publishers) have signed
+letters of intent to deploy Taler as soon as we have regulatory approval and
+are in operation. A demo of online services that use GNU Taler for payments
+is available at https://demo.taler.net/.
+
+For regulatory approval, we need to still enhance the wallet with backup
+functionality, improve the documentation, and find a way to fund independent
+security audits. Additional funding is sought to port the Taler wallet to
+further platforms, add financial education features that analyze a user's
+spending on their own device, improve the documentation, and to translate our
+user interfaces into more languages.
+
+We will deploy the Taler system inside the University of Applied Sciences in
+Bern for internal payments in Q1 2020. After this small-scale operation that
+requires no regulatory approval, we will complete the integration with the
+German bank and proceed to document the system for regulatory approval. Once
+approved, we will launch the system with our media partners. Various
+non-profits have already signalled their support (Wau Holland Foundation,
+Renewable Freedom Foundation, DigitalCourage, as well as many individual
+Ashoka fellows, including people involved with Wikipedia and Change.org).
+After the launch, we will work in parallel on the integration with more and
+more platforms and also continue to push the development of the consumer's
+wallet (financial education, accessibility, translation). If we can show
+significant up-take, we envision to eventually transition the system to become
+a centrally banked digital currency operated by the respective central bank
+as legal tender.
+\end{document}
