The Swiss National Bank has released a paper on the advantages of GNU Talers over blockchain and account-based digital money transactions for Central Bank Digital Currency.
A possible technical implementation was presented in a paper by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), discussing the merits of token-based digital cash called GNU Talers. The Swiss Bank has been developing the concept of ‘Taxable Anonymous Libre Electronic Reserves’, or Taler for short. Interested parties have been able to try out the cryptographically secured digital ‘coins’ for some time.
The GNU Taler is stated to be privacy-friendly, as well as aiming to avoid high energy consumption and strong fluctuations in value. The Taler builds on central banking authorities and corresponds to the respective currency, which is cryptographically represented. According to the Swiss National Bank, issuing a digital central bank currency in the style of Taler would make it possible to pay anonymously online, through blind signatures. However, the Swiss National Bank continues to state that money laundering and tax evasion should be made more difficult because payees have to have their Talers credited to their normal accounts quickly via the central bank.
