Gnu Taler

GNU Taler is a free software platform for fin-tech. It delivers an online payment system which provides privacy for customers as well as accountability for merchants. It uses an exchange service to issue digital coins using blind signatures, and is thus not subject to the performance issues that plague Byzantine fault- tolerant consensus-based solutions. Gnu Taler follows privacy by design architecture strategy. An exchange which is regulated by government will provide services. From the exchange, customer will withdraw money. The money is spend over merchant portal. All the transactions are encrypted. Thus it avoids potential issues associated with fin-tech. Since Taler uses decades old, proven algorithm standards such as RSA blind signatures, Diffie-Hellman and Strawman solution for implementing the security and privacy, It is considered as fault tolerant. And Taler is a free software. Anyone can view, download, modify and redistribute the program. Like all free software, Taler also promises security, privacy and trust.

Taler, uses a web browser based software wallet. Authorising exchange for transfer will transfer money to the wallet. In practice, the Taler software wallet will act like a physical wallet. But it have support for payback\citep{Dold2016}. To establish a purchase, a contract is being made between the merchant and the customer. Either the customer or the merchant refuse to agree, the transaction won’t happen. An exchange, which is usually a bank, can’t see who bought what. The customer pays the merchant directly based on the contract. Exchange will only know how much money is now owned by the merchant. Gnu Taler is a cash-like platform, it supports inseparability between different currencies and the payments are zero false positives. It is taxable for governments, supports regulatory agencies. Unlike blockchain based payment systems available, Taler provides faster payment mechanisms and supports micro payments.

Authentication and Authorisation

In Gnu Taler, It is necessary to communicate with an exchange. Authenticating exchange uses pass-phrases. Exchange communicates directly with software wallet resides inside web browser though a secure random socket. Taler wallet is secured with public-private key cryptography. To authenticate to open the wallet, pass-phrase for private key is also required. Authorisation of payment are based on a contract between merchant and customer.

By accepting the contract results in authorising the payment.

Privacy

Gnu Taler is considered to as the only easy to use, privacy aware, secure, regulating, taxable fin-tech platform available. The design principle followed is privacy by design. So, by default privacy is preserved. It acts like real cash and wallet. By design, it is unable for any analytical firm such as Cambridge Analytica\cite{hilary_osborne_hannah_jane_parkinson} to analyse user purchase behaviour. Micro-payments are considered as best feature of Gnu Taler. For any content creator, it is necessary to pay for their effort. Advertisements are usually used to generate that income. By using Gnu Taler’s micro payment solution, It is possible to pay our share for their effort. It helps in removing ad-tech firms. So an extra layer of privacy protection can be achieved.

Conclusion

Gnu Taler is privacy aware and protective by design. Strong, decades long, proven cryptographic algothims prevent identity theft. Zero false positives is another feature, which denotes reliability of the system and hence proves adaptability. Another field of profiling is done ad-tech. Taler’s support for micro-payments shall be a replacement for ad-tech.