11.5. Using the Regional Currency¶
The very first step you should check after the installation process has been completed successfully, is to make sure all three URLs (bank, backend and exchange), are available (this means to see a Website, and not any NGINX error).
11.5.1. Bank backend walkthrough¶
As stated above, please visit before “https://bank.$DOMAIN_NAME”, to make sure it is available.
Now login with the username “admin” and the password you have choosen during the installation process, or use the one which might have been generated automatically (and shown on your terminal screen), during the installation process. Once inside the Bank Administrator area, please create the “very first” customer account.
Transfer some funds from the “admin” bank account to this new customer account.
Now logout from the “admin” account, and login again using the recently “customer” account you have created, and make sure the funds you have transfered from admin, have arrived correctly.
Now, please choose the option “Send Money to a Taler Wallet”, and try to send for example 100 units of your regional currency to the wallet installed on your browser or mobile phone.
Now try to spend some of these funds from your wallet, and try to buy something somewhere, with the same digital currency you have choosen, during your installation process, let’s say Netzbon.
Lastly, you can also try to transfer funds to another “bank account”,for that you will need to know the recipient’s username or the bank account ID.
If you have successfully accomplished all the previous steps, for the bank administrator backend and your installed Wallet, you can move now to test other components such as the Merchant backend (https://backend.$DOMAIN_NAME).
11.5.2. Wallet Setup¶
This section describes the interaction between the Taler graphical wallet (Android, iOS, WebExtensions) and the regional currency system.
You need to add your regional currency exchange to the wallet. This can
be done by scanning a QR code with a taler://withdraw-exchange/exchange.$DOMAIN_NAME/$MASTER_PUBLIC_KEY
URL or by manually entering the URL into the respective Add exchange
dialogue.
11.5.3. Cash-In¶
Next, start the withdraw process in the Taler wallet for the respective currency and specify the desired amount. The wallet will then show you the details of the fiat wire transfer that must be made for the cash-in to be completed. Once the money has arrived at the fiat bank account, Nexus will obtain the transaction data and the regional currency bank will create the corresponding amount in regional currency, crediting the GNU Taler exchange account. In turn, the exchange will issue the respective amount to your wallet.
Note
Cash-in operations may be subject to conversion rates, conversion fees and minimum amounts to be transferred.
Warning
Cash-in operations can take a long time, hours at the best of times, and even days on weekends or holidays when the bank is closed.
11.5.4. Making payments¶
For testing, you should be able to deposit regional currency directly into your regional currency libeufin-bank account directly from the Taler wallet. For this, you primarily need to know your bank account details (which should be accessible by clicking on your name in the bank Web site after logging in).
Note
There may be a short delay between the wallet making the deposit and the exchange crediting your bank account. This is because the wallet uses a small wire transfer delay by default when initiating a deposit into a bank account.
For production, it is more common for a shop to configure a Taler merchant backend or at least use an instance within such a setup. To configure an instance, you primarily need again the bank account details to setup instance bank accounts.
11.5.5. Cash-Out¶
Regional currency accounts that have a positive balance could be eligible for cash-out. Cash-out operations may again be restricted by the regional currency operator and will only be made to the respective pre-configured fiat currency bank account. To cash-out, simply log into your regional currency account, select cash-out, specify the desired amount and pass the second-factor authorization challenge by entering the TAN you receive at the registered e-mail address or mobile phone number.
Note
Cash-out operations may be subject to conversion rates, conversion fees and minimum amounts to be transferred.
Warning
Cash-out operations can take a long time, hours at the best of times, and even days on weekends or holidays when the bank is closed.