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Re: [Taler] (docs) taler-in-a-nutshell.txt


From: Thien-Thi Nguyen
Subject: Re: [Taler] (docs) taler-in-a-nutshell.txt
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2021 23:33:37 -0500
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.1 (gnu/linux)

() Sebastian Javier Marchano <sebasjm@gmail.com>
() Fri, 12 Feb 2021 00:30:14 -0300

Thanks for the feedback.

   [...] from another newbie I can say that I find this overview
   really interesting. What I think it may confuse is in step 5
   where it says "These coins are not anonymous", since coins do
   not change its condition but is the merchant who reveals its
   identity in the operation.

Good point.  I have changed step 5 to read "These coins are
still anonymous, although the transaction itself is not
anonymous."  WDYT?

   I was thinking how to put it in simple words and maybe what's
   missing is the concept of the contract.

   Maybe:
   In step 3.5 merchant creates a contract with the terms,
   currency and amount.  In step 4, either the merchant or the
   consumer are able to send the (contract + coins) to the
   exchange. In return it gives a receipt.  In step 5, the
   consumer can call the exchange to get the coins left over
   from the payment.

   I'm not entirely sure so my comments may need a review if
   that's how the protocol works.

IIUC (but note that i'm no expert, either!), your description is
accurate.  However, to keep things simple, i've decided to not
include it in this particular document.

Please find attached here revision 1.8:
$Id: taler-in-a-nutshell.txt,v 1.8 2021/02/20 04:32:48 ttn Exp $

The Taler payment cycle involves six parties: (a) customer, (b) exchange,
(c) merchant, (d) customer bank, (e) exchange bank, (f) merchant bank.  The
exchange is the central entity that mediates the wire transfer of real
currency between (d), (e), (f) by way of "coins", cryptographically secure
tokens passed between (a), (b), (c).

There are six steps to a Taler payment cycle.

In step 1, (a) directs (d) to make real funds available to (b).

In step 2, (d) does a wire transfer of real funds to (e), fulfilling the
request from step 1.  (b) generates coins corresponding to those real funds;
these are called the "reserve".

In step 3, (a) "withdraws" coins, either wholly or partially, from (b).  These
coins are kept in a "wallet" under control of (a).  The coins in the wallet
are anonymous.

In step 4, (a) authorizes payment of coins from the wallet to (c).  This
transfers payment coins from the wallet to (c), and change coins from (c) to
the wallet (unless the payment amount exactly matches the denomination of the
coins in the wallet).

In step 5, (c) "deposits" coins into (b).  These coins are still anonymous,
although the transaction itself is not anonymous.

In step 6, (b) directs (e) to wire transfer real funds corresponding to the
accumulated deposited coins to (f).

NB: The Taler payment cycle is part of the Taler payment system, which
includes also an auditor component, not described here.
-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen -----------------------------------------------
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