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Terms Of Service

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Last Updated: 09.06.2022

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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.

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This is research

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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.

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Overview

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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.

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Highlights:

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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

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  • 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.

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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.

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How you accept this policy

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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.

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Services

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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.

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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.

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Fees

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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.

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Eligibility and Financial self-responsibility

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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.

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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.

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Copyrights and trademarks

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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.

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Limitation of liability & disclaimer of warranties

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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:

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

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  2. server failure or data loss;

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  3. unauthorized access to the Taler Wallet application;

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

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  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.

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

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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:

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  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:

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

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

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

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  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

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  1. any direct damages.

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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.

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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.

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Indemnity and Time limitation on claims and Termination

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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.

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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.

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

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Discontinuance of services and Force majeure

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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.

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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.

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Governing law, Waivers, Severability and Assignment

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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Questions or comments

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

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