Developer(s) | Christian Grothoff and Florian Dold |
---|---|
Repository | git |
Type | Microtransaction and electronic payment |
License | Clients: GPL-3.0-or-later [1] [2] 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. [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]
Financial cryptography is the use of cryptography in applications in which financial loss could result from subversion of the message system. Financial cryptography is distinguished from traditional cryptography in that for most of recorded history, cryptography has been used almost entirely for military and diplomatic purposes.
David Lee Chaum is an American computer scientist, cryptographer, and inventor. He is known as a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and widely recognized as the inventor of digital cash. His 1982 dissertation "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups" is the first known proposal for a blockchain protocol. Complete with the code to implement the protocol, Chaum's dissertation proposed all but one element of the blockchain later detailed in the Bitcoin whitepaper. He has been referred to as "the father of online anonymity", and "the godfather of cryptocurrency".
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A blockchain is a shared database that records transactions between two parties in an immutable ledger. Blockchain documents and confirms pseudonymous ownership of all transactions in a verifiable and sustainable way. After a transaction is validated and cryptographically verified by other participants or nodes in the network, it is made into a "block" on the blockchain. A block contains information about the time the transaction occurred, previous transactions, and details about the transaction. Once recorded as a block, transactions are ordered chronologically and cannot be altered. This technology rose to popularity after the creation of Bitcoin, the first application of blockchain technology, which has since catalyzed other cryptocurrencies and applications.
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