Re: [Taler] Wallet architecture: browser plugin or system resource?

[Christian Grothoff]

On 09/05/2017 12:45 PM, David Seaward wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I wanted to confirm my understanding of the user's wallet:
> 
> 1. Currently, each device has its own wallet. So my phone wallet and my
> laptop wallet are distinct.

Yes.

> 2. In the future, there may be a mechanism to synchronise wallets. At
> this point my phone and laptop could share the same wallet.

Yes.

> 3. In the current implementation, does the wallet operate solely as a
> browser plugin, or is a shared system resource?

Today, solely as a browser plugin. Having a shared system resource may
in some cases be nice, but is a bit of a usability nightmare. Hence my
plan is to start with synchronization, and maybe in the medium term have
a hardware wallet that can be plugged in to act as a shared system resource.

> One way of understanding this: if I use two browsers on the same
> device, do they each need a Taler wallet plugin and are these wallets
> distinct?

For now, they are distinct. In the future, you ought to be able to
synchronize then (over the network) or use a USB stick which both
browsers access as a shared system resource.

> Another way of looking at it, if I use a GNU/Linux distro
> would I install a single wallet package, which all my browsers (and
> possible other applications) could access?

I don't see this happening in quite a while, especially as for
non-GNU/Linux platforms doing this would be very complicated. Still, it
would be cool to have eventually.

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