NGI Taler

TALER will roll out a new electronic payment system that benefits European citizens, merchants, and banks. GNU Taler is a privacy-preserving digital payment system developed by the GNU community and Taler Systems SA with additional funding from various NGI calls (NGI0 PET, NGI0 Entrust, NGI POINTER, NGI TRUST). GNU Taler offers privacy for the buyer while enforcing transparency on sellers. As a result, citizens do not suffer from surveillance when paying with GNU Taler, and States can ensure that businesses can be held accountable for their income and pay their taxes.

The first vertical addressed by TALER is the financial industry. TALER will bring GNU Taler to TRL 9 by making GNU TALER available as payment system via retail banks (via GLS and MAGNET Bank).

TALER counts three verticals for its go-to-market strategy. The first is the publishing sector: independent book publishers and journalists will integrate the sector with GNU Taler as a viable payment system. The e-health sector will implement GNU Taler as payment option for e-Health providers to guarantee privacy of the payer. Finally, the FLOSS ICT supply chain vertical will integrate GNU Taler in the FLOSS development ecosystem for donations and pledges.

We expect TALER to have several long lasting impacts: By providing micro payments at very low overhead GNU Taler permits Internet business models to shift away from advertising revenue or subscription models, especially for online publishers, The no-risk transactions will lower transaction fees and open online payments for the underbanked population and citizens marginalized from digitalisation. Finally, easy to use, efficient and privacy-respecting commercial payments will likely impact the debate on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) such as the Digital Euro, as central banks globally struggle to present a compelling use-case for their retail CBDC projects.