The GNU project has introduced the free electronic payment system GNU Taler 0.14. GNU Taler includes core components that enable the operation of a bank, exchange points, marketplace, wallet, and auditor. The system allows for seller identification for tax reporting while ensuring buyer anonymity. The NGI TALER project is working on creating a product based on GNU Taler that is ready for use in the European Union. Development funding is being provided through grants from the European Commission and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). The code is written in Python and is distributed under the AGPLv3 and LGPLv3 licenses.
The GNU Taler payment system is not tied to its own cryptocurrency and works with existing currencies such as dollars, euros, and bitcoins. Support for new currencies is provided through a linkage to a bank that acts as a financial guarantor for the transactions made. The project promotes a business model based on exchange operations — money from traditional payment systems such as Bitcoin, Mastercard, SEPA, Visa, ACH, and SWIFT is converted into anonymous electronic money in the same currency. Users can transfer electronic money to sellers, who can then exchange it back into real money at the exchange point.
Transactions already made in GNU Taler maintain their integrity even if clients', vendors', and exchange points' private keys are leaked — the database format allows for verification of all completed transactions and confirmations of their consistency. The cryptographic proof of transfer within the contract with the client serves as the payment confirmation for the vendors, along with a cryptographically signed confirmation of the availability of funds at the exchange point. The system does not reveal how the client spends their money but allows tracking of funds arriving to the recipient, preserving the sender's anonymity. This approach addresses issues with tax audits typical of BitCoin.
Key Changes:
- The option to limit transaction size and refund amounts.
- Employees responsible for anti-money laundering (AML) have been given the ability to define rules applied to previously unencountered bank accounts to simplify the analysis of suspicious transactions.
- Two new auxiliary processes have been implemented for marketplaces, reducing data redundancy and speeding up interactions with exchange points.
- A SHOPPING_URL setting has been added to inform buyers about the site with a catalog of marketplaces that accept payments through GNU Taler.
- Support for RFC 7636 has been added to the exchange point implementation to enhance the security of authorization using the OAuth 2.0 protocol.
- The interface of the mobile app has been redesigned.
- Vulnerabilities identified during an external security audit of the libeufin library, which implements banking protocols for exchanging payment information with European banks, have been eliminated.
Source: opennet.ru
