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Brazil's government-run payments system has become dominant

(www.economist.com)
666 points jcartw | 2 comments | 08 Apr 25 10:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.539s | source
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sephalon ◴[08 Apr 25 20:46 UTC] No.43626285[source]▶
I wish more of these government-baked payment systems would just use GNU Taler [1] instead of implementing their own walled gardens.

GNU Taler ensures that the paying customer is anonymous while the merchant is identified and taxable. This is great for privacy, but not very attractive for commercial companies as your revenue has to be fully based on fees instead of making extra money by selling your customers data. The Swiss National Bank showed interest in adopting it some years ago, but I haven't heard much anymore since…

[1] https://www.taler.net

replies(2): >>43626831 #>>43637191 #
1. fesoliveira ◴[08 Apr 25 21:51 UTC] No.43626831[source]▶
> GNU Taler ensures that the paying customer is anonymous

This right here is the reason why governments won't use it. Governments want transactions to be traceable so that they can audit your taxes. I don't have any issues with that, I actually don't mind paying taxes, but I would never expect a government, no matter how progressive, to use a privacy-based protocol or solution.

replies(1): >>43636273 #
2. jcgl ◴[09 Apr 25 19:07 UTC] No.43636273[source]▶
It’s designed with taxes in mind. Total user cashflow is still apparent at the bank, just like if you withdrew cash. And the amounts received by vendors are visible as well. So taxable there too. That’s a big part of what’s so cool about it.