Comment by procone
11 hours ago
It's "money" but it has to be permanently connected to the Internet and it *expires* if disconnected for too long?? This is infinitely worse than Bitcoin.
https://www.taler.net/en/faq.html
> Taler e-money is issued with a validity period. One month before the expiration date, your wallet should automatically exchange any digital cash that is about to expire for new digital cash with an extended validity period. However, if your wallet is offline for an extended period of time, it may be unable to do so. Ensure your wallet is regularly online to avoid losing money due to expiration!
> It's "money" but it has to be permanently connected to the Internet and it *expires* if disconnected for too long??
Staying disconnected is not what makes them expire, but you need connection to ‘renew’ them before they do expire, if you plan on keeping your tokens for a very long time (say, years). At least that’s my reading of it.
> This is infinitely worse than Bitcoin.
If we only consider this single aspect and ignore all the other ways in which it’s arguably better than Bitcoin, then yes.
To be fair, in today's clown world inflation has eaten 50% of your cash holding real value in 5 years. The only way to stay "ahead" is to dispose of your cash in exchange for securities (and not whatever this is).
Taler is a payment system used with existing currencies. It’s neither a currency nor an investment asset. It’s a way to pay for stuff without giving up your privacy, not for staying ‘ahead’.
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The total value in the financial system will always be forced to match the total value existing in the real world, one way or another. This is inevitable with any financial system, and it usually takes place by a rapid devaluation of whatever people are holding lots of.
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> It's "money" [that] expires
I agree. I can hold my paper cash in my wallet for as long as I like. Having digital money that expires (even if i can "refresh" the validity period) is a no go. It would have to be used like this: need to buy something? load some money on GNU Taler wallet, buy thing, keep GNU Taler wallet empty.
So it would be just cumbersome to use in real life.
There was once the idea of expiring money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demurrage_currency
GNU Taler seems more like an expiring invoice that requires paying in a specific timeframe.
"permanently" is overstating it. Usually this is configured to be like once per year or even every couple of years.
> This is infinitely worse than Bitcoin.
It's not meant to be like Bitcoin. If you want Bitcoin, use Bitcoin.