Hacker News Reader

Comment by F3nd0 | Hacker News Reader

> It's "money" but it has to be permanently connected to the Internet and it *expires* if disconnected for too long??

Staying disconnected is not what makes them expire, but you need connection to ‘renew’ them before they do expire, if you plan on keeping your tokens for a very long time (say, years). At least that’s my reading of it.

> This is infinitely worse than Bitcoin.

If we only consider this single aspect and ignore all the other ways in which it’s arguably better than Bitcoin, then yes.

View on HN

To be fair, in today's clown world inflation has eaten 50% of your cash holding real value in 5 years. The only way to stay "ahead" is to dispose of your cash in exchange for securities (and not whatever this is).

Taler is a payment system used with existing currencies. It’s neither a currency nor an investment asset. It’s a way to pay for stuff without giving up your privacy, not for staying ‘ahead’.

Alas being it not as anonymous as actual cash, I wonder how it preserve privacy.

From the FAQ https://www.taler.net/en/faq.html

Taler supports push and pull payments between wallets (also known as peer-to-peer payments). While the payment appears to be directly between wallets, technically the operation is intermediated by the payment service provider which will typically be legally required to identify the recipient of the funds before allowing the transaction to complete.

The total value in the financial system will always be forced to match the total value existing in the real world, one way or another. This is inevitable with any financial system, and it usually takes place by a rapid devaluation of whatever people are holding lots of.

That doesn't mean the number of units in the financial system has to go up. Their value can simply go up.

That incentives not participating in the economy instead of participating in the economy.

People are still buying electronics even if their prices go down. Reality doesn't agree with the idea that inflation is necessary for consumption.

You seem to be conflating price increases with the money supply increasing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com