TU/e coordinates EU project to push next-generation private and secure online payments

The payment solution GNU Taler is different from current online payment methods, like credit cards or bank transfers, in that it offers privacy for the buyer: neither merchants (payee) nor banks can trace or link the payments to the payer. That makes the system similar to cash for the consumer, bringing this level of privacy to online payments.

It is also a no-risk payment option for the merchant as there is no equivalent of fake or stolen credit cards, as payments are cleared and confirmed instantly just like cash. There is no new currency involved, there is no energy-consuming proof-of-work or proof-of-stake method, and payment approval is processed even faster than with credit cards.

The European program NGI TALER enforces transparency on the payee side, allowing governments to hold businesses accountable for their income and tax obligations.

Focus on technology and expanding the community
“We see this as an important political moment”, underlines Heloise Guarise Vieira, project leader in Discrete Mathematics at the TU/e. “Developing this new system can make the EU less dependent on big banks. This not only makes online payments easier and cheaper, but also less vulnerable to fraud.”

She and her fellow researcher, cryptography expert Tanja Lange, were approached by Taler Systems S.A. to take the project to the next level. “As a leading partner, our focus is on the technology and on expanding the community. This is one of the first free and open software payment systems in this field. The code is accessible for anyone who wants it. No gatekeeping, but sharing knowledge, especially with smaller companies. We want to make NGI TALER more accessible, as well as more international by including three different currencies (Euros, Swiss Francs, and Hungarian Forints).”

NGI TALER is funded as a pilot under the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative within the European Commission's Horizon Europe research funding program and will run until 2026. This project is based on the free software GNU Taler which has been developed by the GNU community and Taler Systems S.A., and which has received wide praise from financial experts including experts from several central banks - including the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The program’s goal is to make GNU Taler available as a payment system via two European banks - GLS Bank (Germany) and MagNet Bank (Hungary). NGI TALER's ambition is to reach the European market during the project period and have the payment mechanism accepted and widely adopted by the end of the project.

Privacy-preserving alternative
Under the hood, GNU Taler deploys state-of-the-art cryptography to achieve these features. The initial investment into the required infrastructure is low and the payment mechanism operates more cost-efficiently than existing payment solutions, with lower transaction costs - a benefit that will be shared by consumers, merchants and banks. This makes it a viable candidate for micropayments, creating an interesting and privacy-preserving alternative to subscription- or advertisement-based revenue for newspapers and other publishers.

The NGI TALER consortium is coordinated by the Coding Theory and Cryptology group at Eindhoven University of Technology and has ten more partners from eight European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and Switzerland). The consortium is diverse in terms of types of institutions, including research (Eindhoven University of Technology) and applied science universities (Berner Fachhochschule BFH), small for-profit companies (Code Blau GmbH, Taler Systems S.A., VisualVest), a structure (petites singularités), cooperative banks (GLS Bank, MagNet Bank), a foundation (Stichting NLnet) and grassroots movements (E-Seniors Association, Homo Digitalis).

For more information see the project's webpage at https://www.taler.net/en/ngi-taler.html.