BEWARE: apparently gnutaler.org is a fake website taler.net is the correct one! source: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/taler/2018-01/msg00009.htm...

Whoops, wrong URL. Sorry for the confusion!

https://taler.net/

(Too bad I can't edit my original comment anymore here on HN. I find it disgusting to have helped spread a scam website and not being able to fix that afterwards.)

Paging dang, can you fix this?

So as a non-cryptocurrency suppporter, what's the point then? Making things distributed necessarily makes it slower and harder/more expensive to regulate (let alone operate). Not to mention the high volatility which is the primary thing that gives a currency any value (hence, why the US Dollar is considered the reserve currency of the world: its stability). At some point, a duck is a duck. This duck is a fun experiment and someone discovered how to combine proof of work (old concept) with quorums (old concept) and a distributed ledger (old concept) that altogether gave the illusion of something unique and usable. I'm seeing worse usability on all fronts, no endgame in sight (except to move to a new currency when transaction fees get high), little to no regulation, and a worser world in general. It's also ecologically irresponsible (centralized currencies will _always_ be more efficient by definition).

I don't care that I can make a quick buck by preying on people's FOMO, the whole movement is fueled by seemingly emotional, albeit baseless, arguments and bravado.