Testing GNU Taler at #Datenspuren was fun. And by fun I mean mostly unspectacular. It just worked. I scanned a QR code. I got some Kolle Mate.
I think some sort of GNU Taler integration into #Conversations_im would be pretty cool.
If you would like to integrate Taler into Conversations there are currently funding opportunities available¹ from @nlnet and both the Taler developer as well as myself are happy to help with scoping.
Two minor nitpicks on my GNU Taler experience. (And the fact that I’m complaining about those should be taken as an indication on how well the experiment went otherwise.)
• From checkout (by the merchant) to creation of the QR Code it sometimes took a little bit too long (seconds instead of instant). I think it round trips to the server and maybe the network was slow.
• The wallet app on Android looks very plain and boring. If we integrate this into #Conversations_im it needs to look cooler.
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@daniel I read about Taler years ago but still have no clue how one could ever use it
@ben The 'problem' is that merchant and buyer have to agree on a common, trusted exchange. For a limited test run within a conference that’s easy. The conference organizer basically becomes the trusted exchange for the participants of that conference.
In the real world we would probably need larger banks (or government institutions) to act as those exchanges. And apparently GNU Taler is in talks with a small number of European banks…
@daniel We tried hard to provide good Internet connection through our OpenWrt WiFi. My 4 or 5 transactions all were completed within a second which is a huge improvement over last year's experience.
@astro I didn't actually mean to comment on the quality of the wifi. I was thinking more in the direction of maybe there is some optimization on the GNU Taler protocol that can be done. Connection caching. Compression. Something like that.
@daniel I ran into a problem where a transaction stayed in a pending state without finishing. In the end I fixed it by turning off my VPN, but it took a good 10 minutes of trying again, with a different app, from a user instead of the infopoint tablet etc.
Other than that, very smooth.
@daniel @nlnet
Do you know if they intent to make private transactions between individuals possible?
The usecase would be anonymously tipping people in the fediverse, while they can protect their identity if they want so.
I don't know if this part of the fediverse is visible to you, but here it's pretty common that some who fall short in cash ask for a little support and others then help out.
@daniel @nlnet I've been thinking about that too, but is there a need for integration into each apps? I mean an Android intent, URI or whatever to call a dedicated app with recipient pre-filled would not be enough?
How do you envision that exactly?
Sorry my question may be naive as I've never used it myself.
@Goffi In short: The exact scope would be left for whoever wants to tackle this to figure out.
Initially I thought we can parse URIs (which are already clickable in #Conversations_im) and display them nicely. "Alice is requesting 2 Euro", "Bob wants to sent you 10 Euro".
However URIs are not self contained and need to be resolved by the exchange (via network).
It's either IPC with the Wallet to ask the wallet to resolve them or just integrate the Wallet into Conversations. Why not the latter?!