After a year and a half of development, the GNU Project presented release of a free electronic payment system GNU Taler 0.10, providing anonymity to buyers, but maintaining the ability to identify sellers to ensure transparency in tax reporting. The system does not allow tracking of information about where the user spends money, but provides tools for tracking the receipt of funds (the sender remains anonymous), which solves the problems inherent in BitCoin with tax audits. The code is written in Python and distributed by licensed under AGPLv3 and LGPLv3.
GNU Taler does not create its own cryptocurrency, but works with existing currencies, including dollars, euros and bitcoins. Support for new currencies can be ensured through the creation of a bank that acts as a financial guarantor. GNU Taler's business model is based on performing exchange transactions – money from traditional payment systems such as BitCoin, Mastercard, SEPA, Visa, ACH and SWIFT is converted into anonymous electronic money in the same currency. The user can transfer electronic money to sellers, who can then exchange it back into real money represented by traditional payment systems at the exchange point.
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All transactions in GNU Taler are protected using modern cryptographic algorithms, which allow them to maintain authenticity even if the private keys of clients, sellers and exchange points are leaked. The database format provides the ability to verify all completed transactions and confirm their consistency. Confirmation of payment for sellers is a cryptographic proof of the transfer within the framework of the contract concluded with the client and a cryptographically signed confirmation of the availability of funds at the exchange point. GNU Taler includes a set of basic components that provide the logic for the operation of the bank, exchange point, trading platform, wallet and auditor.
The development is funded by grants from the European Commission, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and the Swiss State Secretariat for Research and Innovation (SERI). In the project's boundaries
NGI TALER Work is underway to create a product based on GNU Taler, ready for use in the European Union.
Basic changes:
- Added support for key exchange using the EBICS 3.0 (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard) protocol, designed for the secure exchange of payment information between banks. A utility has been proposed to send requests to banks using the EBICS protocol libeufin-nexus.
- A more convenient interface for making payments using QR codes has been proposed for stores, implemented through a publicly available GET request handler using templates.
- The Apple app store contains an implementation of the wallet for the iOS platform.
- Wallets have improved management of connections to exchange points.
- Wallet-core has added the ability to generate monitoring events to simplify diagnostics.
- A new type of transaction has been implemented for wallets, representing funds lost due to denomination, withdrawal or expiration of coins.
- Wallet-core provides request caching and added support for asynchronous key verification.
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