GNU Taler, the «alternative to Bitcoin» proposed by Richard Stallman

GNU thalers

Personally, I don't trust Bitcoin very much. It just doesn't make me feel confident. And I have said it well: it is a personal impression that must have something to do with the unknown or the new, even if it is new to oneself. I don't know if this impression will ever change in the future but, if it does, it will with something like GNU thalers, «An alternative», in quotation marks, which proposes Richard Stallan, who is the creator of GNU and the GPL, something that should be familiar to all our readers.

But what is GNU Taler? Unlike Bitcoin, GNU Taler it is not a cryptocurrency, but a payment system designed to be used to make anonymous payments to businesses. To do this, whoever pays uses a signature or token, one necessary in each purchase to be able to obtain money from the system. With this explained, is it an alternative to Bitcoin? Only if we think about the part in which we pay, and it would be a safer one.

GNU Taler is not a coin

Stallam says that «you can use your bank account to get Taler tokens, and you can spend them and whoever receives the money will not be able to tell who has paid them«. This is somewhat reminiscent of the use that some distrustful people made (and surely still do) to make purchases online: putting money in a special card with little money that they only use to make purchases online. It also reminds PayPal, where we only give an email to make payments through an intermediary. Or Apple Pay, which also uses Tokens. The main difference from these systems is that GNU Taler is totally anonymous at all times.

GNU Taler is not something that everyone can use right now, which makes sense considering that it hasn't been around for a long time, but the European Community seems interested in supporting the payment system and he has already done tests that have gone very well.

Why Taler?

For privacy. Stallam is a huge advocate for user privacy and believes that digital payment systems are dangerous if they are not developed to be secure. Furthermore, in countries like China nothing is kept private and Stallman prefers that governments are not snooping on transactions. All these problems disappear if we use GNU Taler: nobody knows who has paid what, but the payment has been made. Will you trust him?


3 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Adrian said

    Ask how do you buy going other than laundering or drug money?

  2.   luix said

    not only do I not trust bitcoin, I don't trust digital modes,

    1.    Fyodor said

      Since we stopped using gold doubloons and the like, ALL coins are digital. They are figures in the bank account or a piece of paper (or a durable metal alloy) that represents a certain value, but does not have it by itself.

      Although there are those who say that copper today are worth more than the value they represent. But that is another story…