I looked at Taler Operations website. It says: Prerequisites: Here is what you need to get started paying with GNU Taler:
Swiss bank account with an IBAN beginning with “CH”,
Mobile phone number beginning with “+41” to receive P2P payments, and
Installation of a [ Taler wallet ].[ Tutorials available ].
Is that right, with any Swiss bank, IBAN beginning with “CH”, its possible to load the TALER wallet with Swiss franc (CHF)?
And if finding a merchant, or other person ( with Mobile phone number beginning with “+41” to receive P2P payments,), its possible to pay via TALER in Swiss franc (CHF)?
Very nice!
Maybe someone could do a list of Swiss merchant’s, accepting Swiss franc (CHF) via TALER?
As soon as there will be merchants in Switzerland who onboard with Taler Operations and integrate the payment option in their web shops or vending machines, we will gladly publish their names and points of sale. And yes, you need to have a Swiss mobile phone number for P2P payments and a Swiss bank account if you want to deposit your wallet’s funds to the originating bank account. There are also some KYC and regulatory requirements which demand this to have. In principle, you could wire fiat CHF from any (even foreign) bank account to the Taler Operations’ bank account in order to let your Taler wallet withdraw digital cash (t.i. Taler Operations Swiss CHF) which would enable you in the end to pay legal tender CHF to the merchants’ bank accounts - if there were merchants already accepting the Taler payments.
Maybe Taler Operations could have their own merch store where you could buy Taler branded T-shirts or cups? Might be a nice way to test it and support the project.
Is it right?
Its possible for foreigners (with e.g. German IBAN bank account) to transfer Euro to “Taler Operations’ bank account”, which will be CHF. This CHF can be used for CHF merchants (when the first merchants will offer payments via Taler.)?
If so:
How, what needs to be done for people with (foreign) bank account to get a “Taler Operations’ bank account”?
Thanks.
First of all: Taler is not about creating accounts for users, but it is tokenized digital cash instead (e-cash tokens). You just wire money from your bank account to the PSP’s bank account. In Taler Operations’ case, you need to have a Taler wallet on your smartphone and add Taler Operations as the payment service provider (aka Taler Exchange). Then, the wallet displays the wire transfer details and you could wire fiat money to that account - but it might incur high fees by your bank to convert Euro into CHF and send that amount to Switzerland. Secondly, you will have a hardship depositing the e-cash in your wallet back to your Euro account. To withdraw into the wallet is the easy step, but a Swiss mobile phone number will also be prompted (due to KYC requirements) so that you need to be in Switzerland, though.
And, of course, there are no merchants so far to pay for.
As I wrote above: In principle, you could wire fiat CHF from any (even foreign) bank account to the Taler Operations’ bank account. But in reality, for the beginning, if we want to avoid comprehensive customer identification, we have to exclude customers outside of Switzerland or without Swiss bank accounts. So, at withdrawal the Taler Exchange run by Taler Operations checks that the amounts wired per month from or to the same Swiss bank account are below certain thresholds.
We additionally require customers to register a Swiss mobile phone number and confirm it by receiving an SMS-TAN when they withdraw more than CHF 200 per month - or for P2P payments.
So, while being in Switzerland, you need either a Swiss bank account OR a Swiss mobile phone number. And while paying with Taler you do not leave any more information than “somebody paid this amount of CHF to a Swiss merchant”.
].[ Tutorials available 
].