USC File #352

NetCheque®: A NETWORK PAYMENT SYSTEM
NetCash: ELECTRONIC CURRENCY FOR COMPUTER NETWORKS
352
DESCRIPTION Secure methods of payment are needed before we will be widespread commercial use of the Internet. Recently proposed and implemented payment methods follow one of three models: electronic currency, credit-debit, and secure credit card transactions. Such payment services have different strengths and weaknesses with respect to the requirements of security, reliability, scalability, anonymity, acceptability, customer base, flexibility, convertibility, efficiency, ease of integration with applications and ease of use.
The NetCheque system is a distributed payment system based on the credit-debit model. The strengths of the NetCheque system are its security, reliability, scalability and efficiency. Signatures on cheques are authenticated using Kerberos. Reliability and scalability are provided by using multiple accounting servers. NetCheque is well suited for clearing micropayments; its use of conventional cryptography makes it more efficient than systems based on public key cryptography. Though NetCheque does not itself provide anonymity, it may be used to facilitate the flow of funds between other services that do provide anonymity.
With electronic currency systems like USC's NetCash, customers purchase electronic currency certificates from a currency server. They pay for the certificates through an account established with the currency server in advance, or by using credit cards, electronic checks, or paper currency accepted through a reverse automatic teller machine. Once issued, the electronic currency represents the value and may be spent with merchants who deposit the certificates in their own accounts or spend the currency elsewhere. The NetCash system is superior to other electronic currency systems because of its efficient multiple currency servers, and payments cleared between currency servers using NetCheque. USC's NetCash provides weekly anonymous transactions. Unless all parties collude, including the currency servers selected by the client for the transaction, it is not possible to determine who spent a certificate.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE Worldwide, non-exclusive licensing (for additional information see the NetCheque WWW site at http://nii-server.isi.edu/info/NetCheque or http://nii-server.isi.edu/info/NetCash)
DEVELOPERS B. Clifford Neuman
KEY WORDS Network Payment System, Internet Payment System, Electronic Credit-Debit Network

NetCheque is a registered service mark of the University of Southern California.

For additional information contact:

Dina Lozofskylozofsky@usc.edu
Phone: 213 743-2282 / Fax 213 744-1832

This page last updated March, 1995

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NetCheque®: A NETWORK PAYMENT SYSTEM NetCash: ELECTRONIC CURRENCY FOR COMPUTER NETWORKS	352
DESCRIPTION	Secure methods of payment are needed before we will be widespread commercial use of the Internet. Recently proposed and implemented payment methods follow one of three models: electronic currency, credit-debit, and secure credit card transactions. Such payment services have different strengths and weaknesses with respect to the requirements of security, reliability, scalability, anonymity, acceptability, customer base, flexibility, convertibility, efficiency, ease of integration with applications and ease of use. The NetCheque system is a distributed payment system based on the credit-debit model. The strengths of the NetCheque system are its security, reliability, scalability and efficiency. Signatures on cheques are authenticated using Kerberos. Reliability and scalability are provided by using multiple accounting servers. NetCheque is well suited for clearing micropayments; its use of conventional cryptography makes it more efficient than systems based on public key cryptography. Though NetCheque does not itself provide anonymity, it may be used to facilitate the flow of funds between other services that do provide anonymity. With electronic currency systems like USC's NetCash, customers purchase electronic currency certificates from a currency server. They pay for the certificates through an account established with the currency server in advance, or by using credit cards, electronic checks, or paper currency accepted through a reverse automatic teller machine. Once issued, the electronic currency represents the value and may be spent with merchants who deposit the certificates in their own accounts or spend the currency elsewhere. The NetCash system is superior to other electronic currency systems because of its efficient multiple currency servers, and payments cleared between currency servers using NetCheque. USC's NetCash provides weekly anonymous transactions. Unless all parties collude, including the currency servers selected by the client for the transaction, it is not possible to determine who spent a certificate.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE	Worldwide, non-exclusive licensing (for additional information see the NetCheque WWW site at http://nii-server.isi.edu/info/NetCheque or http://nii-server.isi.edu/info/NetCash)
DEVELOPERS	B. Clifford Neuman
KEY WORDS	Network Payment System, Internet Payment System, Electronic Credit-Debit Network