> > 2. Secondly, such a HBCI server-side library could enable someone > > to set up his own OpenSource online *bank*. It would enable people > > to start their own PayPal. The OpenSource Gift Exchange Registry > > idea by Christophe B. Browne could actually be implemented with > > real working online transfers. The donation jar of GnuCash could > > be set up to represent such a HBCI-accessible bank, which means it > > can be managed by people all over the Internet. Well, the > > possibilities are I think pretty much summarized by "setup your > > own paypal". > > While I think this sounds like a great idea, I really don't think > gnucash is the place to do it.
This is *exactly* the point why I've joined the gnucash mailing list the other day. In the long run I'm interested in such a development. However just HBCI is not enough, and I agree that gnucash per se is not exactly the place to do it. Though very close. For one thing it needs a wide area network infrastructure, and an application to be aware of the network latency, which means some changes to gnucash. Just postgresql on the WAN has been discussed... The second thing is that you need to build trust with your bank. This requires the network infrastructure to be intrusion resistant (i.e., continue to work in case of malicious attacks) and incorruptible (i.e., no person can impersonate another one, no central administration, no single point of failure etc.). Shameless plug: I've spent the past years on the askemos project (www.askemos.org), which aims to provide just such kind of a infrastructure. It is now proven to be usable (think of Zope but the Scheme way [_much_ simpler]; but it's not really a application server, it's more an application proxy network, which pretends towards the client to cache the server replies as it should, but there is no server; instead results it delivers come from the byzantine agreement what the server would have replied, if it was there). > > What do people think? Is there a demand for such ideas? Who wants > > to setup an Internet-wide distributed GnuCash? > > I think it's definitely a worthwhile cause.. I'm just concerned about > the gnucash focus. Having something that works _WITH_ gnucash is a > GREAT idea. Even having some of the hooks in gnucash (which are > mostly there with the extant HBCI code) is a good idea. But I think > that Gnucash needs to focus on what it's already doing, and make sure > it does that well. Exactly! That's why I'm here. I feel that gnucash could be the ATM of that "bank", while the bank itself should be kind of an askemos application. Most of the required stuff is already there. The missing link is currently the HBCI bindings. (Askemos runs currently on rscheme and chicken, not yet ported to guile, but I don't expect big problems, I've been careful to write R5RS as much as pissible.) > Not that I'm trying to discourange you; I think an open-source HBCI > online-bank server is a great idea, but I tihnk it deserves its own > package and shouldn't be part of GnuCash. best regards /Jörg -- The worst of harm may often result from the best of intentions. _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gnucash.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
