this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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GNU Taler begins operating in Switzerland, distributed by the Taler Operations AG. Gnu Taler aims to be a “digital wallet” and has been used by the swiss national bank as well as the european national bank as a example for how a digital currency handed out by the state could work. It aims to be as privacy preserving as cash for the buyer while not allowing the seller to evade taxes.

Currently the Taler is brought out by a special organisation, the “Taler Operations AG”, and not the national bank, although both the national bank as well as the Taler Team have shown interest in a official digial currency by the national bank based on the Taler. But we need to relativate as the national council has stated that the introduction of a digital currency would probably take relatively major legislative changes and therefore take a bit of time.

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[–] ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

Why would anyone want to track you down for watching porn?

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 5 points 9 hours ago

Ask the Swedes, they're the ones being weird about it

[–] plyth@feddit.org 9 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

In Sweden you can buy porn but you are not allowed to buy life streams and tell actors what to do to prevent abuse of power imbalances.

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 6 points 9 hours ago

Stupid law. The performer can simply not do what they don't wish, in the safety and comfort of their own home. Nothing anyone can do about it. It doesn't get much safer than this.

[–] nun@lemm.ee 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

That seems like a reasonable law.

[–] golli@lemm.ee 7 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

That depends on whether you believe that a ban leads to an overall reduction of such problematic imbalances, rather than just shifting shifting the whole industry into illegal markets that are unregulated and hidden, where they might actually get amplified. By banning it you are also giving up your opportunity to regulate.

Prostitution presents a similar dilemma, which countries handle in various ways. Some ban it completely, others like sweden have the "nordic/swedish" model where only the buyer gets penalized, and in some contries like Germany it is legal (either with or without additional regulations in place). Based on a brief search i think it's still up for debate whether the nordic model has the desired effects, with the opaqure nature of illegal markets making it hard to properly study the subject.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 9 hours ago

Does it though?

Haaaave you met Baptists?