333 lines
14 KiB
TeX
333 lines
14 KiB
TeX
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\newcommand{\TODO}[1]{{\color{orange}#1}\marginpar{{\color{orange}TODO}}}
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\begin{document}
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\title{AP³\\
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Report for Milestone IV\\
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NGI Pointer}
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\author{Özgür Kesim\\
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Christan Grothoff\\
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Florian Dold\\
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Stefan Kügel\\
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Emmanuel Benoist\\[\bigskipamount]
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\normalsize Mentor: Mirko Ross \href{mailto:m.ross@digital-worx.de}{<m.ross@digital-worx.de>}\\[\medskipamount]
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}
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\date{October 29, 2022}
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\maketitle
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\section*{Management summary}
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\begin{abstract}
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For the \textsc{NGI Pointer} programme, the AP³ project team extended GNU Taler with
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\begin{itemize}
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\item age-restricted payments,
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\item peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and
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\item a proof-of-concept escrow functionality for
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privacy-preserving auctions.
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\end{itemize}
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This document provides the report for the final milestone IV with details on
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the state of the implementation, the results of user experience studies
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and projected future work.
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\end{abstract}
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\vfill
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\hfill {\footnotesize Version: 1.0}
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\thispagestyle{empty}
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\newpage
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\tableofcontents
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\newpage
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\section{Age Restriction}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Technical details}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Future Works}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Links}
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\TODO{}
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\newpage
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\section{P2P Payments}
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We implemented two styles of P2P payments: \textbf{push payments} where a
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user sends money to another Taler wallet (which can then accept the
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payment), and \textbf{pull payments} where a user sends an invoice to
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another Taler wallet (which can then pay the invoice).
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Both styles of payment only require one asynchronous uni-directional
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secure communication between the wallets to make the payment. The
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information that is exchanged is in both cases a short \texttt{taler://}-URI
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which allows the wallet to obtain further details from the payment service
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provider. These further details include the contract/invoice that the payment
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is for. The contract/invoice is stored encrypted at the exchange and thus
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cannot be learned by the exchange.
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The actual P2P payment works by having the initiator wallet first
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communicate with the Taler exchange to setup the payment. Then the
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Taler URI is communicated to the other wallet, for now usually via
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QR code or NFC transmission; however, users could also copy the URI
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to the clipboard and exchange it via some (secure) messenger. Upon
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receiving the URI, the other wallet then again interacts with the
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exchange to obtain more details and complete the payment.
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If the recipient of a push payment does not accept the payment
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(say because the message was lost in transmission, or they do not
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like the attached contract terms) the money is automatically refunded
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to the payer after some expiration date is reached.
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\subsection{Technical details}
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P2P payments always work by establishing a \textbf{purse} at the
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exchange. A purse has an expiration date, target amount, minimum age,
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associated business contract (or invoice), an actual balance and two
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public-private key pairs representing permissions to operate on the
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purse. For a push payment, the wallet of the sending user creates a
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purse (with contract and expiration time) and immediately ensures that
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the balance of the purse is the target amount. The payer then sends
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the merge-capability key of the purse to the payee. The payee can
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then use the merge-capability key to merge (move) the balance of the
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purse into a KYCed (i.e. know-your-customer ready) reserve of the receiving
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wallet. A KYCed reserve basically is a long-term public-private key pair that
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identifies a wallet and a user at an exchange, ensuring income transparency.
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Once the money is in the reserve, the wallet can then use the reserve private
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key to withdraw fresh coins.
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When invoicing, the initiator again creates a purse, but this time
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does not put any money into it and keeps the merge capability key
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private. The initiator wallet instead immediately specifies its own
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KYCed reserve as the one the purse should be merged into. The
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initiator then shares a contract-download capability key with the
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payer. The payer downloads the contract (including the purse public
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key) and can then decide to put money into the purse. Once the purse
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balance reaches the target amount, it is then automatically merged
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with the initiator's reserve. The initiator's wallet (long) polls the
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reserve and withdraws the funds as soon as they become available.
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The protocol and implementation includes a few refinements, like fees
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to be paid to the exchange for managing a purse and age-restrictions
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on the coins used to pay an invoice.
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\subsection{Future Work}
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The following features (from tiny to major) have been discussed in
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the team and ought to be implemented as part of future work.
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\begin{itemize}
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\item \textbf{Wallets:} The wallet UIs currently do not allow the user to actually specify
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any age-restrictions on the payer when sending P2P pull payment requests
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(invoicing). This mostly is about adding one more drop-down widget.
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\item \textbf{Wallets:} The wallet UIs currently do not allow the user to actually specify
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the expiration date for the purse. Instead, the duration is hard-coded
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to a few hours (likely too short). This mostly is about adding one more
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input field.
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\item \textbf{Auditor:} The Taler auditor was extended to support P2P transactions in
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its audits, but the code has not been adequately tested (no
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fault injection).
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\item \textbf{Exchange:} P2P payments currently only work if both wallets are using the
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same exchange. If multiple exchanges operate in the same currency
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domain and the recipient has made their (expensive) KYC process
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at one exchange and the payer has withdrawn from the other, a
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direct payment between the wallets is not possible right now. We
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envision federation protocol using periodic aggregated
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(``wad'') payments between exchanges should be added to support
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P2P payments involing multiple exchanges in the future.
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\item \textbf{Mailbox (NEW):} Currently, sending the payment URI is largely left to the user.
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We would like to implement a ``mailbox'' service for Taler wallets
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that would enable wallets to asynchronously exchange URIs over the
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Internet. Once a wallet knows the mailbox address of another wallet
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(which would include a public key to encrypt messages to), the user
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would no longer be required to manually exchange the QR code.
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\item \textbf{TalDir (NEW):} To lookup the mailbox address of another wallet, we would like
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to implement a directory service that maps existing addresses like
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e-mail addresses, phone numbers or accounts in messengers or social
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media platforms to a mailbox. When establishing the directory service
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entry, the directory service would validate that the user registering
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the wallet has control over the respective address. Naturally, the
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directory service would need to be trusted to return the correct
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mapping.
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\item Both the mailbox and the directory service operators could
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themselves be paid via Taler for their service. That should help
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ensure a high quality of service from those operators. Naturally,
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using the mailbox or the directory service would be optional.
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\item \textbf{Messaging:} In the long term, we would like to see more direct integration
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of Taler payment functionality with messaging applications, especially
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for spam prevention (``The recipient has configured its software to
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demand a payment of 50 cents before displaying a message from an unknown
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sender to the user. If they like your message, they promise they would
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refund this attention fee. Do you want to pay to have your message
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shown? (Y/N)'').
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\end{itemize}
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\subsection{Links}
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\href{https://docs.taler.net/design-documents/013-peer-to-peer-payments.html}{Document
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013} at \url{https://docs.taler.net/design-documents/} presents the design.
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The main implementation parts for P2P are distributed over various code
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locations under \url{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/}
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(wallet) and \url{https://git.taler.net/exchange.git/tree/src/exchange/}
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(exchange):
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\begin{description}
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\item[Payment operations:] \href{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/taler-wallet-core/src/operations/pay-peer.ts}{taler-wallet-core/src/operations/pay-peer.ts}
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\item[Database schema related:] \href{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/taler-wallet-core/src/db.ts#n2065}{taler-wallet-core/src/db.ts}
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\item[Transaction list type declarations:] \href{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/taler-util/src/transactions-types.ts#n251}{taler-util/src/transactions-types.ts}
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\item[WebExtension UI:] \href{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/taler-wallet-webextension/src/cta/InvoiceCreate}{taler-wallet-webextension/src/cta/InvoiceCreate} and \href{https://git.taler.net/wallet-core.git/tree/packages/taler-wallet-webextension/src/cta/InvoicePay}{InvoicePay}
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\item[Exchange] \url{https://git.taler.net/exchange.git/tree/src/exchange/},
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specifically:\\
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\texttt{taler-exchange-httpd\_purses\_*.c}, \texttt{taler-exchange-httpd\_reserves\_purse\_*.c},
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\texttt{taler-exchange-httpd\_contract.*},
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\texttt{taler-exchange-expire.c} (plus related changes in the database, client libraries, history, auditor),
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and the main test case at
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\href{https://git.taler.net/exchange.git/tree/src/testing/test\_exchange\_p2p.c}{testing/test\_exchange\_p2p.c}
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\end{description}
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\newpage
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\section{Brandt-Vickrey Auctions}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Technical details}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Future Works}
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\TODO{}
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\subsection{Links}
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\TODO{}
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\newpage
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\section{User Experience Studies}
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For the \textsc{NGI Pointer} programme, the AP³ project team performed a
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usability study to gather feedback and inform further development of the
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age-restricted and P2P payment functionalities.
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The BFH ``Digitaltag'' is an annual day-long event where the
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university presents itself to the public. It is held right next to the
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central train station of Biel/Bienne, and is open to the general
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public. It was attended by a mixture of prospective students, normal
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adults, Swiss executives and retirees.
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We used the opportunity to both present GNU Taler to the public, and
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to conduct usability studies with interested volunteers.
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\begin{figure}[h!]
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\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{pics/digitaltag-ux-setup.jpg}
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\caption{Our booth, with GNU Taler publications (including on
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age-restrictions), NGI stickers, and a Taler-enabled coffee machine.}
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\end{figure}
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\subsection{Preparation}
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We prepared several notebooks with a browser running a Taler wallet as
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well as several Android phones with the Taler Android wallet. We
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set up the coffee machine and three Taler backends, one for CHF (used
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by the coffee machine), one for KUDOS (used with age-restrictions in
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the browser-based setup) and one for Bitcoin (used for P2P payments).
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We also prepared a rough write-up describing what we would like users
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to do. These intended user stories are included in the appendix. We
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note that during the day, we permitted participants to deviate from
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the script if they desired to do so, sometimes leading them to explore
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other GNU Taler features (and us learning interesting lessons about
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those).
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For the UX study, we prepared four tables: two tables with the coffee
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machine and information materials, and two tables with additional
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chairs for guests for the actual UX experiment.
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\begin{figure}[h!]
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\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{pics/digitaltag-ux-chairs.jpg}
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\caption{Tables for the UX study with Prof. Benoist.}
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\end{figure}
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\subsection{Data collection}
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We did not collect any PII on the participants.\footnote{Except for
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one executive who had come just for our booth from Zug and who gave us
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his business card as he hopes to collaborate with us in the future.}
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Instead, each team member wrote down their observations. We
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afterwards de-duplicated the observations and turned those that could
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lead to improvements into over 20 new issues on the GNU Taler
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bug-tracker (\#7334--\#7354).
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\subsection{Key conclusions}
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The day revealed the existence of several previously unknown bugs
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(like refresh not working properly with the new features) as well
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as quite a few surprising difficulties of users (not finding the
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QR code button, not finding the account balance, not understanding
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that the \texttt{shop.demo.taler.net} page is the shop where they should buy
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things). We will try to rectify those as soon as possible.
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\end{document}
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