On P2P payments from their FAQ: “While the payment appears to be directly between wallets, technically the operation is intermediated by the payment service provider which will typically be legally required to identify the recipient of the funds before allowing the transaction to complete.”

How about, no? How about me paying €50 to my friend for fixing my bike doesn’t need to be intermediated, KYCed, and blocked if they don’t approve of it or know who the recipient is? How about it’s none of the government’s business how I split the bill at dinner with friends? This level of surveillance is madness, especially coming from an app that touts “privacy” as a feature.

GNU Taler is a trojan horse to enable CBDC adoption. They are the friendly face to an absolutely terrifying level of government control in our lives funded by the same government that tries every year to implement chat control. Imagine your least favourite political party gaining power. Now imagine they can see and control every transaction you make. No thanks.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I disagree. Taler also individuals to stay private while preventing crime. I personally could never use crypto as it empowers criminals and is very unpredictable. Taler uses flat currency so you don’t need to worry about it losing value overnight.

    It isn’t done yet and it may get abandoned but it is a start. For now it is a interesting project to watch. Also cash is king

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
      0·
      3 months ago

      Taler uses flat currency so you don’t need to worry about it losing value overnight.

      There are a number of stabletokens that you also wouldn’t need to worry about losing value overnight.

      • makeasnek@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        Stablecoins are the worst of crypto and central banking combined.

        • They are centralized, even more centralized than central banks since they are run by a single company not an board appointed by an elected government
        • They can rug you at any time
        • They only have value because they are “pegged” to a certain currency and the “backing” must exist to maintain that peg.
        • Their source of the backing is often “trust me bro”
        • Even if the backing was solid, market shocks and other problems can reduce the value of that backing, leading to them being insolvent and the stablecoin losing its value. And guess what, it wasn’t insured!
        • They are often poorly regulated or unregulated entirely, so you have no reason to trust their claims and probably can’t seek any real remedy if they are lies
        • They are, at best, pegging their value to a currency which is designed to lose 2-3% of its value per year due to inflation

        Several of them have already collapsed spectacularly. More will in time. Avoid stablecoins.

    • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I personally could never use crypto as it empowers criminals and is very unpredictable.

      Do you also avoid cash?

      Linux is used by criminals and fascists as well, outlaw Linux?

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      Criminality is unfortunately a very subjective term. Data brokers are not criminals, neither corrupt politicians, but you can easily become one by not doing any harm, but going on a protest, or standing up to bad things imposed on you or other people.

        • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          Taler can be used for custom currencies too. Anyone can run a mint for their own currency, and anyone can participate in handing out coins of a given currency, problem probably in exchange for things outside of the system. The reporting capability of Taler is tied to the currency.

          We will probably see it if it can really be done, but I think “traditional” cryptocurrencies could be implemented on top of taler.

          • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            You could use Crypto with Taler but it wouldn’t make a lot of sense as crypto is digital anyway. It also would have all the draw backs of crypto.