Project description
Innovative privacy-preserving digital payment system
Numerous sectors, including publishing and e-health, rely on electronic payment systems. However, privacy concerns remain a challenge for this payment method. The EU-funded TALER project seeks to address these issues by introducing GNU Taler, a privacy-preserving digital payment system that benefits European citizens, merchants, and banks. This system ensures transparency for sellers while safeguarding the privacy of buyers. TALER aims to make the system available via retail banks and advance it to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9. The project’s go-to-market strategy focuses on three verticals: publishing, e-health, and the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) ICT supply chain. The system will enable micropayments with low overhead and influence discussions surrounding the digital currencies of central banks.
Objective
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.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
5612 AE Eindhoven
Netherlands