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Yes it is. You just write down "got 5 bucks from customer" and submit it to the tax office. Now one side is anonymous (customers) and the other not (merchant)

Ar-Curunir 6y ago
And before that the customer writes down “received 5 bucks”. Then you match up the two and can track the customer’s spending habits
- littlestymaar 6y ago
  Well, If all you have is “A spent $5” and “B received $5” you are still missing a lot of info to identify that A and B are part of the same transaction (there are thousands of $5 trades every day) But that's not even how Taler works: you withdraw an arbitrary amount of Taler (say $50), this is what is recorded on the consumer side, but then you have anonymous tokens (exactly like coins and bills) that you can spend without connecting to anything: only the supplier need to have a connection to a certification entity (which ensure no double spending).
  - runeks 6y ago
    What is the denomination of these tokens? Do I hand over 500 one-cent tokens to pay $5?
    - littlestymaar 6y ago
      That's the coolest thing about Taler: there is a thing called “the refresh protocol”[1] which allows you to obtain change after a transaction: that is, for instance you pay with a $7 token for your $5 transaction, and you get a $2 change token! [1]: section “4.7.4. Refreshing and Linking” in this paper https://ged.univ-rennes1.fr/nuxeo/site/esupversions/41aac1ac-3074-4b0e-9087-cee5f58ce0b2?inline https://ged.univ-rennes1.fr/nuxeo/site/esupversions/41aac1ac...
      - runeks 6y ago
        That is pretty cool! So, basically, if a merchant requests payment of $5 and the buyer only has a $4 and a $3 token then the buyer exchanges her $3 token for three $1 tokens with the exchange (without involvement of the merchant) and then pay the merchant with a $4 and a $1 token?
- igorkraw 6y ago
  If you go to your ATM and get 5 bucks, and then go to the cafe to pay a coffee with it and it's registered in their system, this is the exact same scenario, you realize that?

Ar-Curunir 6y ago

And before that the customer writes down “received 5 bucks”. Then you match up the two and can track the customer’s spending habits

littlestymaar 6y ago
Well, If all you have is “A spent $5” and “B received $5” you are still missing a lot of info to identify that A and B are part of the same transaction (there are thousands of $5 trades every day) But that's not even how Taler works: you withdraw an arbitrary amount of Taler (say $50), this is what is recorded on the consumer side, but then you have anonymous tokens (exactly like coins and bills) that you can spend without connecting to anything: only the supplier need to have a connection to a certification entity (which ensure no double spending).
- runeks 6y ago
  What is the denomination of these tokens? Do I hand over 500 one-cent tokens to pay $5?
  - littlestymaar 6y ago
    That's the coolest thing about Taler: there is a thing called “the refresh protocol”[1] which allows you to obtain change after a transaction: that is, for instance you pay with a $7 token for your $5 transaction, and you get a $2 change token! [1]: section “4.7.4. Refreshing and Linking” in this paper https://ged.univ-rennes1.fr/nuxeo/site/esupversions/41aac1ac-3074-4b0e-9087-cee5f58ce0b2?inline https://ged.univ-rennes1.fr/nuxeo/site/esupversions/41aac1ac...
    - runeks 6y ago
      That is pretty cool! So, basically, if a merchant requests payment of $5 and the buyer only has a $4 and a $3 token then the buyer exchanges her $3 token for three $1 tokens with the exchange (without involvement of the merchant) and then pay the merchant with a $4 and a $1 token?
igorkraw 6y ago
If you go to your ATM and get 5 bucks, and then go to the cafe to pay a coffee with it and it's registered in their system, this is the exact same scenario, you realize that?