Re: [Taler] Rien ne va plus

[Christian Grothoff]

We've also been talking to some members of parliament(s), both active
and retired, as well as a German labor organization, if that is what you
are asking about.

That said, not all central banks are founded, owned or controlled by
commercial banks, some are indeed state-owned and to some degree in
charge of regulating the commercial banks. In my impression, their staff
is often quite focused on acting in the interest of the general public,
but them being often economists also means that they naturally view what
is in the interest of the general public primarily from an economic
perspective.

Regardless, we do have to urgently educate them, least the totalitarian
members proposing central bank digital currency implemented by bank
accounts at the central bank as a way to achieve total control [1] are
unopposed.

Happy hacking!

Christian

[1] Yep, not kidding: https://grothoff.org/christian/bis-cbdc.mp4

On 12/18/21 6:16 PM, Calvin Burns via Taler wrote:
> Are there also conversations with organisations representing the peoples
> interests not the banks? Central banks act always in the interest of the 
> capital
> and are founded, owned or controlled by commercial banks and they have no
> democratic legitimation (but do politics).
> 
> On Fri, 12/17/2021 08:13:23 PM, Christian Grothoff wrote:
>> Dear Wolf,
>>
>> Sorry for the shock :-).
>>
>> In terms of talking with banks, I can say it's progressing. A German
>> bank has recently completed its first core banking integration test
>> (withdraw and payment) and we hope to progress towards a public beta in
>> H1'2022.  We've also talked to a very interested person in charge of
>> payment system innovation at a commercial Swiss bank, and this week
>> there was also a presentation by Sebastian to a commercial bank in
>> Argentina (no idea how it went).
>>
>> Just today, we presented Taler to the German Bundesbank, and we also
>> talked to the central banks of Spain, Austria, Japan, Taiwan, USA,
>> Canada this year. But, central banks move very slowly and carefully,
>> even more so than commercial banks, so we don't expect anything reaching
>> consumers via them anytime soon. But, they are interested and do clearly
>> listen (and ask lots of questions).
>>
>> In terms of what's not going so well: iOS wallet development has been
>> stalled for a while, so it would be great if we could find some UI
>> developer specializing in iOS App development to push this. Otherwise, I
>> fear we won't be able to support a major platform at launch. We also
>> have a non-trivial number of bugs in the bugtracker that really ought to
>> be addressed before going public. As always, help is welcome (but yeah,
>> I need to get taler.net back up before anyone could possibly do that...)
>>
>> Happy hacking!
>>
>> Christian
>>
>> On 12/17/21 2:37 PM, oehmannemuere@gmx.net wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I had an awful moment seeing the subject of your message, as a fan of
>>> the Taler concept who is not up-to-date regarding the plans for a Taler
>>> launch... It would be great if at some point you guys could share what
>>> you are able to share publicly: How are the talks with banks and other
>>> players going? Is there an expectation when people (who are not at
>>> Berner Fachhochschule) will be able to pay with Taler?
>>>
>>> Thanks, have a nice end of the year,
>>>
>>> Wolf
>>>
>>> On 17.12.21 14:25, Christian Grothoff wrote:
>>>> Let's just say Dell and hardware raid controllers are not a good idea...
>>>>
>>>> taler.net fails to boot, even though the data is presumably on 7 disks.
>>>>
>>>> I'll see what I can fix later...
>>>>
>>>> -christian
>>>>
>>>
>>
>