[GNUnet-SVN] [taler-marketing] branch master updated: Initial e-krona application conversion to latex

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burdges pushed a commit to branch master
in repository marketing.

The following commit(s) were added to refs/heads/master by this push:
     new 852c6dd  Initial e-krona application conversion to latex
     new 0f59c2d  Merge branch 'master' of ssh://taler.net/marketing
852c6dd is described below

commit 852c6dd64f536cba5a6c91d895a271ac69acc372
Author: Jeffrey Burdges <address@hidden>
AuthorDate: Wed Oct 18 18:54:14 2017 +0200

    Initial e-krona application conversion to latex
---
 ekrona/e-krona.tex        | 156 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 ekrona/taler-arch-full.sh |   1 +
 2 files changed, 157 insertions(+)

diff --git a/ekrona/e-krona.tex b/ekrona/e-krona.tex
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ed5913
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ekrona/e-krona.tex
@@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
+\documentclass {article} % {acmart}
+
+\usepackage{url}
+\usepackage{eurosym}
+\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
+% \usepackage{lmodern}
+% \usepackage{verbatim}
+\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
+\usepackage{graphicx}
+
+\def\UoL{University of Luxembourg}
+
+\begin{document}
+\pagestyle{headings}
+\thispagestyle{empty}
+
+\begin{center}
+{\large Taler for eKrona}
+
+\medskip
+
+% \begin{tabular}{l l}
+% Project Acronym      & LAC - Latent Anonymous Commons  (LAKE) \\
+% Principal Investigator       & Jeffrey Burdges \\
+% Host Institution     & University of Luxembourg \\
+% Main Partner         & pEp SA \\
+% \end{tabular}
+\end{center}
+
+\def\red{}  % FIXME
+
+
+\section*{Introduction}
+
+Taler Systems is developing a solution called Taler, that could easily fit the 
requirements of the e-krona project. 
+
+Taler is an open source system based on a wallet and a central exchange. It 
provides instant one-click payments, can offer payer anonymity with receiver 
transparency for tax purposes. It is fast and cheap, and can hence also cover 
micro-payments economically (payments of the order of 1 cents). 
+
+The USPs of the Taler Systems are as follows:
+
+\begin{itemize}
+\item All operations provide cryptographically secured, with mathematical
+      proofs for courts and auditors
+\item Customer can remain anonymous, as with cash if desired
+\item Merchants are identifiable in each payment they receive
+\item Payments are in existing currencies
+\item Fraud is mostly eliminated, especially compared to credit cards
+\item Scalable, fast protocol implementation 
+\item Suitable for micro-payments due to very low transaction costs
+\item Ease of use (one-click, instant)
+\item Open standard protocol without patents, with free reference 
implementations
+\end{itemize}
+
+Taler is intended to run with the following architectural elements. 
+
+\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{taler-arch-full.pdf}
+
+
+{\red Describe general functioning of Taler (ONLY AS MUCH AS FITS ON THIS PAGE 
- 
+audit, hash of transaction, etc)}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+\section*{*What would a technical solution for a register-based e-krona look 
like?*}
+
+We imagine a hybrid solution, as described in the question below. {\red [Can 
we use blockchain for the register-based component? They seem to put a lot of 
emphasize on system resilience. (Christian to update according to 
possibilities???)]}
+
+\section*{*What would a technical solution for a value-based e-krona look 
like?*}
+
+We imagine a hybrid solution, as described in the question below. 
+
+\section*{*What is your vision for an e-krona, are there other possible 
solutions than register-based and value-based that you consider to be more 
appropriate?*}
+
+We imagine a possible e-Krona solution based on the Taler system to be a 
hybrid solution, with a register-based component and a value based component, 
in order to fulfil the maximum requirements outlined in ‘The Riksbank’s e-Krona 
project’ report.
+
+The e-krona Taler wallet can exist on smartphones, in web-browsers, on 
smartcard and on secure USB sticks. It is filled via wire-transfer to the Taler 
exchange (Riksbank can define who is entitled to exchange Swedish kronar into 
e-krona), which will create Taler coins (i.e. e-krona) cryptographically and 
deposit those anonymously with a blind signature into the corresponding wallet. 
 At the same time, the exchange creates an escrow account for the wallet at the 
Riksbank and deposits the  [...]
+
+The Taler System addresses the following requirements outlined in the report:
+
+\begin{tabular}{l l}
+a) Specified in Swedish krona          
+ & Designed for all existing currencies \\
+
+b) Payment size                                
+ & Designed to handle micropayments as well as larger payments between 
consumers, companies and authorities \\
+
+c) Direct claim on Riksbank            
+ & Via escrow accounts opened by the exchange automatically with the Riksbank 
to hold the 
+   escrow amounts. In addition, the Riksbank could entitle the holder of 
e-krona to change them anytime into Swedish kronor. With this the holder has a 
direct claim on the Riksbank and it might not be necessary to change existing 
legislation. \\
+
+d) Accessible in real-time                     
+ & System designed for 24/7 operations \\
+
+e) Payments in real-time                       
+ & One click instant payments with 24/7 operations \\
+
+f) Offline payments                            
+ & Payer can be offline, connects with USB key, smart card, NFC, etc. Exchange 
must be online. \\
+
+g) Anonymous payments                          
+ & System designed for payers to be anonymous if they want to. Receiver is 
never anonymous. \\
+
+h) e-Krona account                             
+ & Escrow account is created automatically based on {\red Wallet ID? 
(Christian to update according to possibilities???).} \\
+
+i) Riksbank functions                  
+ & Holds the escrow accounts, can be the operator of the exchange and 
guarantees the 
+exchange of e-krona in Swedish kronor at all times. \\
+
+j) No bank account necessary                   
+ & The e-krona can be made accessible to groups without bank accounts if the 
exchange operator is also accepting cash. \\
+
+k) Possibility of making interest payments? 
+ & {\red (Christian to update according to possibilities???)} \\
+
+l) Connection to existing payment systems      
+ & Wire transfers, Debit and credit cards can be used to immediately fund the 
e-krona wallet. \\
+\end{tabular}
+
+This solution solves the problem of gaining access to cash and to risk-free 
assets as any Riksbank or government related facility could offer the exchange 
of e-kronas back to cash (as the Riksbank holds the e-Krona escrow funds) for 
people presenting themselves with their e-krona Taler wallet.
+
+At the same time, Taler addresses the inefficiencies of the existing systems 
by eliminating most fraud risks associated, for example, with credit cards, and 
facilitates the usage especially in e-commerce but also in the physical world 
by reducing the steps necessary (no credit card entry, no PIN, no 
authentication and authorisation necessary anymore).
+
+Taler can offer the same privacy as cash for the payer (could be limited to a 
EUR amount per transaction). {\red This limit could be removed if the 
payer/wallet owner contributes his identification to the account by a voluntary 
act. (Christian to update according to possibilities???)}
+
+\section*{*What challenges and opportunities do you envisage with each e-krona 
solution?}
+
+We envisage no major challenges with a e-Krona Taler solution outlined above, 
as the system is already up and running in an Alpha version with browser 
wallets. Further development is needed to create the wallets on other platforms 
and provide more interfaces to merchant systems. 
+
+The main complexity we see would be the roll-out of the compatible 
functionality into the POS systems of merchants in the physical world. But this 
is no different from the challenges that established systems like SWISH, ... 
already solved and hence easy to estimate. If this project is 
Riksbank/government sponsored, that should not be a large.
+
+This outlined solution should have no major impact on monetary policy because 
the issues of e-krona are 1:1 backed by Swedish kronor in the escrow account at 
the Riksbank. But two things will happen temporarily – unless cash is used: 
Firstly, with the issuance of e-krona commercial bank money gets transformed 
into central bank money until the e-krona are spent and transformed back into 
Swedish kronar. And secondly, non-cash commercial bank money gets transformed 
into cash-like money unti [...]
+
+\section*{*What is missing in our concept?*}
+
+We believe that concept described above fits together with the Taler designed 
system to quickly provide a viable, safe, easy-to-use, low-cost solution to 
introduce a digital krona as complement to cash, that offers most of the 
advantages of cash without its downsides, as all recipients of funds are always 
identifiable (and hence government friendly and discouraging fraud and other 
illegal businesses). In addition, such a solution based on Taler can be 
implemented quickly and the open sta [...]
+
+
+
+\paragraph{Contact:}
+
+\begin{center}
+\begin{tabular}{l l l}
+C. Grothoff    &       address@hidden  &       +4 78 692 68 94 \\
+L. Schumacher  &       address@hidden  &       +41 79 865 9365 \\
+M. Widmer      &       address@hidden  &       +4179 900 40000 \\
+\end{tabular}
+\end{center}
+
+\end{document}
+
diff --git a/ekrona/taler-arch-full.sh b/ekrona/taler-arch-full.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d432613
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ekrona/taler-arch-full.sh
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+inkscape ../taler-arch-full.svg --export-pdf=taler-arch-full.pdf

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