초록 ▼

A complete system for the purchasing of goods or information over a computer network is presented. Merchant computers on the network maintain databases of digital advertisements that are accessed by buyer computers. In response to user inquiries, buyer computers retrieve and display digital advertis

A complete system for the purchasing of goods or information over a computer network is presented. Merchant computers on the network maintain databases of digital advertisements that are accessed by buyer computers. In response to user inquiries, buyer computers retrieve and display digital advertisements from merchant computers. A digital advertisement can further include a program that is interpreted by a buyer's computer. The buyer computers include a means for a user to purchase the product described by a digital advertisement. If a user has not specified a means of payment at the time of purchase, it can be requested after a purchase transaction is initiated. A network payment system performs payment order authorization in a network with untrusted switching, transmission, and host components. Payment orders are backed by accounts in an external financial system network, and the payment system obtains account authorizations from this external network in real-time. Payment orders are signed with authenticators that can be based on any combination of a secret function of the payment order parameters, a single-use transaction identifier, or a specified network address.

대표청구항 ▼

[What is claimed is:] [1.]a plurality of client computers; anda payment computer;the client computers and the payment computer being interconnected by a public packet switched communications network;each one of the client computers being programmed to construct a payment request message specifying a

[What is claimed is:] [1.]a plurality of client computers; anda payment computer;the client computers and the payment computer being interconnected by a public packet switched communications network;each one of the client computers being programmed to construct a payment request message specifying a payment amount to be transferred from a sender to a beneficiary, and to cause the payment request message to be transmitted to the payment computer over the public packet switched communications network;the payment computer being programmed to cause a message to be transmitted into the financial authorization network external to the public packet switched communications network, in order to verify that the sender has adequate funds or credit having real monetary, to receive an authorization from the financial authorization network in response to the message, and to transmit an authorization message to the client computer over the public packet switched communications network, conditioned on at least one message transmitted over the public packet switched communications network in connection with the real-time authorization not being a replay of a message previously transmitted over the public packet switched communications network;at least one of the payment request message and the authorization message comprising at least one digital signature of components that include components derived from the at least one message, at least one of which digital signatures protects the at least one message from forgery, including authenticating an identity of one of a plurality of principals as an originator of the at least one message, at least one of which digital signatures protects the at least one message from all replay attacks that result in loss of value, and at least one of which digital signatures is verified based on a principal-specific or source-specific public key.