Sincere Analysis of mine on GNU Taler - another servant of Big Brother

I recently read up on GNU Taler a bit — I make no claims of certainty about anything I write here. If anyone can prove any part or all of this wrong in this document, I will state here that my conclusions were mistaken; everything I write is my personal opinion!

There are many strange and opaque aspects in GNU Taler, but let me describe how I felt when I first encountered and examined it for a while — you may feel similarly about Taler or a comparable platform.

The name and the purported service look attractive at first glance, especially the GNU prefix suggesting official GNU endorsement, which carries the strictness we associate with GNU — and that is a reasonable expectation. At first sight it appears to be a new open-source project that aims to fix shortcomings of similar services or cryptocurrencies: for example, to protect people’s privacy or making modern decentralized methods more broadly accessible.

GNU Taler stands for “Taxable Anonymous Libre Economic Reserves.” It is striking that taxability and privacy are placed side by side; that alone is notable.

“GNU Taler is a privacy-friendly electronic payment system”

Frankly, I don’t know where to begin, but a great many things about this project seem very, very wrong — I will point to some of them and will keep updating this note over the time.

A platform that claims to be open has decided to make digital payments more transparent not for the people, but for big brother Why would anyone design such a thing? Why spend time and energy on a supposedly open, public‑good project that ultimately not only fails to address the shortcomings of modern decentralized payment methods but actively reshapes digital payments to favor Big Brother? Are there not already enough platforms that serve Big Brother? How many banks, credit institutions and closed centralized payment systems must exist before creators are satisfied that the system is already sufficiently biased toward surveillance worldwide?

I really want to understand: on some quiet day over a cup of tea did someone suddenly shout “Eureka — let’s build a platform for Big Brother,” call it “open” to sound respectable, and open-source the code to win paranoid people including developers’ trust? All of this to create a payment platform that explicitly signals, even in its name, that it is meant to discourage tax evasion — and if you’re not convinced to use it, remember Taler is open and for your privacy — as if that were a universal panacea!

“Unlike Bitcoin or cash payments, Taler ensures that governments can easily track their citizen's income and thus collect sales, value-added or income taxes. Taler is thus a currency for the mainstream economy, and not the black market”

The platform tries to convince the payer that their identity and privacy are fully protected, primarily by using bank wire transfers as the main method to fund a Taler wallet Fair — I accept that in normal scenarios the payer may remain anonymous to other consumers and perhaps even to merchants — but if wallet funding is done by bank wire as the only or default method, am I to be convinced that tracing the payer is completely impossible? Absolutely not! Imagine someone intends to buy something illicit from a disreputable merchant. They wire the exact sum from their bank account or use faster payment systems supported by banks that support Taler to top up their wallet. Do I believe the purchaser’s identity cannot possibly be discovered? Would anyone believe that? I never will.

I don’t know how many banks currently support Taler — likely very few now — but given Taler’s stated goal of serving governments, I am certain dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of banks will adopt it soon, under the banner of an “open” and “secure” alternative, as it sells well; and as I noted, banks that do not directly support Taler will still enable wallet funding via wire transfers.

“When you pay with Taler, your identity does not have to be revealed to the merchant. The bank, government and mint will also never learn how you spent your electronic money. However, you can prove that you paid in court if necessary"

The platform markets itself as “libre” and wants others to believe it is Okay, it is open-source and GNU reportedly supports it. For me, however, the word “libre” would be more befitting a platform that helps people avoid big brother’s systemic surveillance and maintain people rights — not one that claims to make it easier for big brother to monitor citizens’ transactions, in the era of decentralized payment systems.

“Taler ensures that governments can easily track their citizen's income and thus collect sales, value-added or income taxes”

“Libre

Taler is free software from GNU implementing an open protocol“

The platform has decided there is a direct line between using cash or cryptocurrencies and tax evasion or black markets This is among the most disturbing claims I see: Taler explicitly positions itself as a mainstream payment system, not for the black market, and implicitly — assumes that using cash or cryptocurrencies is directly associated with tax evasion or black-market activity. That presumption is dangerous and dehumanizing. It is deeply troubling that a platform which claims to be open and privacy-respecting can so easily equate cash or crypto use with misbehavior or tax evasion — even implicitly; at minimum, that is my candid interpretation.

“Unlike Bitcoin or cash payments, Taler ensures that governments can easily track their citizen's income and thus collect sales, value-added or income taxes”

The platform assumes centralized payment systems are not obsolete While people who value freedom yet adhere to civic duties are increasingly drawn to decentralized and peer-to-peer methods — and many legitimate cryptocurrencies already offer such options — a self-proclaimed modern, open, privacy-centric platform imagines centralized payment systems still have a future. Given the priorities Taler outlines, this is unsurprising and, to me, unsurprising in a worrying way.

For now, my overall conclusion based on my current understanding of Taler is as follows: Another platform among millions, one that will serve Big Brother; Like reinventing the horse cart in the age of self-driving cars — and doing it in the worst possible way; In the end, being open-source and claiming privacy, security and respect for confidentiality amounts to little more than marketing rhetoric; I would prefer a closed, known service over anything that tries to be an nth-degree copy of it under the banner of openness and confidentiality.

My candid verdict on GNU Taler: NO, THANKS!

P.S. Everything I wrote is my personal impression based on my study, background and profession — parts or all of it may be wrong. I am exercising my personal freedom of expression.

P.S. In my own life I neither use cash much nor do I use cryptocurrencies — my wallet almost never contains cash (to be honest, after writing it I checked my wallet and 30 cents are there!); I currently have no crypto wallet — maybe I’ll create for my Nostr; regarding taxes, perhaps I am among the first personal tax returns reviewed by local tax office staff on January 2s!

P.S. Technology, efforts, time and human energy should be devoted in serving people and protecting their rights, not the opposite — that is my strong belief;

P.S. Finally: both cash and cryptocurrencies are legitimate options; no one has the right to accuse people by default of shirking civic duties, including tax payment, because of the payment approaches they choose!

Reference:

• GNU Taler Wallet extension, addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/taler-wallet/