exchange/contrib/tos/en/bfh.txt

Terms Of Service
****************

Last Updated: 09.06.2022

Welcome! The ICE research center of the Bern University of Applied
Sciences in Switzerland (“we,” “our,” or “us”) provides an
experimental payment service through our Internet presence
(collectively the “Services”). Before using our Services, please read
the Terms of Service (the “Terms” or the “Agreement”) carefully.


This is research
================

This is a research experiment. Any funds wired to our Bitcoin address
are considered a donation to our research group. We may use them to
enable payments following the GNU Taler protocol, or simply keep them
at our discretion.  The service is experimental and may also be
discontinued at any time, in which case all remaining funds will
definitively be kept by the research group.


Overview
========

This section provides a brief summary of the highlights of this
Agreement. Please note that when you accept this Agreement, you are
accepting all of the terms and conditions and not just this section.
We and possibly other third parties provide Internet services which
interact with the Taler Wallet’s self-hosted personal payment
application. When using the Taler Wallet to interact with our
Services, you are agreeing to our Terms, so please read carefully.


Highlights:
-----------

   * You are responsible for keeping the data in your Taler Wallet at
     all times under your control. Any losses arising from you not
     being in control of your private information are your problem.

   * We may transfer funds we receive from our users to any legal
     recipient to the best of our ability within the limitations of
     the law and our implementation. However, the Services offered
     today are highly experimental and the set of recipients of funds
     is severely restricted. Again, we stress this is a research
     experiment and technically all funds held by the exchange are
     owned by the research group of the university.

   * For our Services, we may charge transaction fees. The specific
     fee structure is provided based on the Taler protocol and should
     be shown to you when you withdraw electronic coins using a Taler
     Wallet. You agree and understand that the Taler protocol allows
     for the fee structure to change.

   * You agree to not intentionally overwhelm our systems with
     requests and follow responsible disclosure if you find security
     issues in our services.

   * We cannot be held accountable for our Services not being
     available due to any circumstances. If we modify or terminate our
     services, we may give you the opportunity to recover your funds.
     However, given the experimental state of the Services today, this
     may not be possible. You are strongly advised to limit your use
     of the Service to small-scale experiments expecting total loss of
     all funds.

These terms outline approved uses of our Services. The Services and
these Terms are still at an experimental stage. If you have any
questions or comments related to this Agreement, please send us a
message to ice@bfh.ch. If you do not agree to this Agreement, you must
not use our Services.


How you accept this policy
==========================

By sending funds to us (to top-up your Taler Wallet), you acknowledge
that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms. We reserve
the right to change these Terms at any time. If you disagree with the
change, we may in the future offer you with an easy option to recover
your unspent funds. However, in the current experimental period you
acknowledge that this feature is not yet available, resulting in your
funds being lost unless you accept the new Terms. If you continue to
use our Services other than to recover your unspent funds, your
continued use of our Services following any such change will signify
your acceptance to be bound by the then current Terms. Please check
the effective date above to determine if there have been any changes
since you have last reviewed these Terms.


Services
========

We will try to transfer funds that we receive from users to any legal
recipient to the best of our ability and within the limitations of the
law. However, the Services offered today are highly experimental and
the set of recipients of funds is severely restricted.  The Taler
Wallet can be loaded by exchanging fiat or cryptocurrencies against
electronic coins. We are providing this exchange service. Once your
Taler Wallet is loaded with electronic coins they can be spent for
purchases if the seller is accepting Taler as a means of payment. We
are not guaranteeing that any seller is accepting Taler at all or a
particular seller.  The seller or recipient of deposits of electronic
coins must specify the target account, as per the design of the Taler
protocol. They are responsible for following the protocol and
specifying the correct bank account, and are solely liable for any
losses that may arise from specifying the wrong account. We may allow
the government to link wire transfers to the underlying contract hash.
It is the responsibility of recipients to preserve the full contracts
and to pay whatever taxes and charges may be applicable. Technical
issues may lead to situations where we are unable to make transfers at
all or lead to incorrect transfers that cannot be reversed. We may
refuse to execute transfers if the transfers are prohibited by a
competent legal authority and we are ordered to do so.

When using our Services, you agree to not take any action that
intentionally imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure. If
you find security problems in our Services, you agree to first report
them to security@taler-systems.com and grant us the right to publish
your report. We warrant that we will ourselves publicly disclose any
issues reported within 3 months, and that we will not prosecute anyone
reporting security issues if they did not exploit the issue beyond a
proof-of-concept, and followed the above responsible disclosure
practice.


Fees
====

You agree to pay the fees for exchanges and withdrawals completed via
the Taler Wallet ("Fees") as defined by us, which we may change from
time to time. With the exception of wire transfer fees, Taler
transaction fees are set for any electronic coin at the time of
withdrawal and fixed throughout the validity period of the respective
electronic coin. Your wallet should obtain and display applicable fees
when withdrawing funds. Fees for coins obtained as change may differ
from the fees applicable to the original coin. Wire transfer fees that
are independent from electronic coins may change annually.  You
authorize us to charge or deduct applicable fees owed in connection
with deposits, exchanges and withdrawals following the rules of the
Taler protocol. We reserve the right to provide different types of
rewards to users either in the form of discount for our Services or in
any other form at our discretion and without prior notice to you.


Eligibility and Financial self-responsibility
=============================================

To be eligible to use our Services, you must be able to form legally
binding contracts or have the permission of your legal guardian. By
using our Services, you represent and warrant that you meet all
eligibility requirements that we outline in these Terms.

You will be responsible for maintaining the availability, integrity
and confidentiality of the data stored in your wallet. When you setup
a Taler Wallet, you are strongly advised to follow the precautionary
measures offered by the software to minimize the chances to losse
access to or control over your Wallet data. We will not be liable for
any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this
paragraph.


Copyrights and trademarks
=========================

The Taler Wallet is released under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GNU GPL). You have the right to access, use, and share the
Taler Wallet, in modified or unmodified form. However, the GPL is a
strong copyleft license, which means that any derivative works must be
distributed under the same license terms as the original software. If
you have any questions, you should review the GNU GPL’s full terms and
conditions at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html.  “Taler”
itself is a trademark of Taler Systems SA. You are welcome to use the
name in relation to processing payments using the Taler protocol,
assuming your use is compatible with an official release from the GNU
Project that is not older than two years.


Limitation of liability & disclaimer of warranties
==================================================

You understand and agree that we have no control over, and no duty to
take any action regarding: Failures, disruptions, errors, or delays in
processing that you may experience while using our Services; The risk
of failure of hardware, software, and Internet connections; The risk
of malicious software being introduced or found in the software
underlying the Taler Wallet; The risk that third parties may obtain
unauthorized access to information stored within your Taler Wallet,
including, but not limited to your Taler Wallet coins or backup
encryption keys.  You release us from all liability related to any
losses, damages, or claims arising from:

1. user error such as forgotten passwords, incorrectly constructed
   transactions;

2. server failure or data loss;

3. unauthorized access to the Taler Wallet application;

4. bugs or other errors in the Taler Wallet software; and

5. any unauthorized third party activities, including, but not limited
   to, the use of viruses, phishing, brute forcing, or other means of
   attack against the Taler Wallet. We make no representations
   concerning any Third Party Content contained in or accessed through
   our Services.

Any other terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated
with such content, are solely between you and such organizations
and/or individuals.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will we
or any of our officers, directors, representatives, agents, servants,
counsel, employees, consultants, lawyers, and other personnel
authorized to act, acting, or purporting to act on our behalf
(collectively the “Taler Parties”) be liable to you under contract,
tort, strict liability, negligence, or any other legal or equitable
theory, for:

1. any lost profits, data loss, cost of procurement of substitute
   goods or services, or direct, indirect, incidental, special,
   punitive, compensatory, or consequential damages of any kind
   whatsoever resulting from:

   1. your use of, or conduct in connection with, our services;

   2. any unauthorized use of your wallet and/or private key due to
      your failure to maintain the confidentiality of your wallet;

   3. any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from the
      services; or

   4. any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like that are found in
      the Taler Wallet software or that may be transmitted to or
      through our services by any third party (regardless of the
      source of origination), or

2. any direct damages.

These limitations apply regardless of legal theory, whether based on
tort, strict liability, breach of contract, breach of warranty, or any
other legal theory, and whether or not we were advised of the
possibility of such damages. Some jurisdictions do not allow the
exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental
damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you.

Our services are provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind. To
the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all representations
and warranties, express or implied, relating to the services and
underlying software or any content on the services, whether provided
or owned by us or by any third party, including without limitation,
warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose,
title, non-infringement, freedom from computer virus, and any implied
warranties arising from course of dealing, course of performance, or
usage in trade, all of which are expressly disclaimed. In addition, we
do not represent or warrant that the content accessible via the
services is accurate, complete, available, current, free of viruses or
other harmful components, or that the results of using the services
will meet your requirements. Some states do not allow the disclaimer
of implied warranties, so the foregoing disclaimers may not apply to
you. This paragraph gives you specific legal rights and you may also
have other legal rights that vary from state to state.


Indemnity and Time limitation on claims and Termination
=======================================================

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend,
indemnify, and hold harmless the Taler Parties from and against any
and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or
debt, and expenses (including, but not limited to, attorney’s fees)
arising from: (a) your use of and access to the Services; (b) any
feedback or submissions you provide to us concerning the Taler Wallet;
(c) your violation of any term of this Agreement; or (d) your
violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or the rights of any third
party.

You agree that any claim you may have arising out of or related to
your relationship with us must be filed within one year after such
claim arises, otherwise, your claim in permanently barred.

In the event of termination concerning your use of our Services, your
obligations under this Agreement will still continue.


Discontinuance of services and Force majeure
============================================

We may, in our sole discretion and without cost to you, with or
without prior notice, and at any time, modify or discontinue,
temporarily or permanently, any portion of our Services. We will use
the Taler protocol’s provisions to notify Wallets if our Services are
to be discontinued. It is your responsibility to ensure that the Taler
Wallet is online at least once every three months to observe these
notifications. We shall not be held responsible or liable for any loss
of funds in the event that we discontinue or depreciate the Services
and your Taler Wallet fails to transfer out the coins within a three
months notification period.

We shall not be held liable for any delays, failure in performance, or
interruptions of service which result directly or indirectly from any
cause or condition beyond our reasonable control, including but not
limited to: any delay or failure due to any act of God, act of civil
or military authorities, act of terrorism, civil disturbance, war,
strike or other labor dispute, fire, interruption in
telecommunications or Internet services or network provider services,
failure of equipment and/or software, other catastrophe, or any other
occurrence which is beyond our reasonable control and shall not affect
the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.


Governing law, Waivers, Severability and Assignment
===================================================

No matter where you’re located, the laws of Switzerland will govern
these Terms. If any provisions of these Terms are inconsistent with
any applicable law, those provisions will be superseded or modified
only to the extent such provisions are inconsistent. The parties agree
to submit to the ordinary courts in Bern, Switzerland for exclusive
jurisdiction of any dispute arising out of or related to your use of
the Services or your breach of these Terms.

Our failure to exercise or delay in exercising any right, power, or
privilege under this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver; nor
shall any single or partial exercise of any right, power, or privilege
preclude any other or further exercise thereof.

You agree that we may assign any of our rights and/or transfer, sub-
contract, or delegate any of our obligations under these Terms.

If it turns out that any part of this Agreement is invalid, void, or
for any reason unenforceable, that term will be deemed severable and
limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary.

This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement as to
the subject matter hereof and supersedes any and all prior
discussions, agreements, and understandings of any kind (including,
without limitation, any prior versions of this Agreement) and every
nature between us. Except as provided for above, any modification to
this Agreement must be in writing and must be signed by both parties.


Questions or comments
=====================

We welcome comments, questions, concerns, or suggestions. Please send
us a message on our contact page at legal@taler-systems.com.