Cryptocurrencies are often understood to enable private payments, but most don’t. Monero does, but its value still fluctuates and wastes energy (even if far less than Bitcoin) in time of the climate catastrophe.
GNU Taler is a (free software) system which enables anonymity for the buyer but not for the merchant, enabling taxability. In effect it’s digital cash you can even use offline without having an internet connection at payment time. It is not a new (crypto-) currency.
The linked news article reveals an EU project which will implement GNU Taler for two European banks (located in Germany and Hungary) in the next 36 months. I assume the reason the EU supports Taler is the Digital Euro (archive.org snapshot).
This is great news! I thought GNU taler was dead, but having a private method of transferring money without some payments processor in the middle that loves your payment data? That’s amazing and it’s exciting to see it finally get off the ground.
And yes, money sucks in general but in the present time under present conditions I might have to shop online. Current payment methods suck.
