Micro-payment Broker Aggregates Transactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic commerce systems on the Internet require buyers to establish multiple accounts and provide payment information for each seller, making micro-payment transactions inconvenient and risky, especially for small transactions like newspaper stories, due to high transaction costs associated with methods like credit cards.
Innovation Solution
A micro-payment system utilizing a broker that allows buyers to establish accounts and provide payment information once, enabling aggregate invoicing and sellers to specify terms and payment information, facilitating efficient micro-payment transactions across multiple sellers without the need for multiple accounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If buyers establish separate accounts with each seller for micro-payment transactions, then each seller can manage their own payment system, but the buyer must provide payment information multiple times and incur high transaction costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a broker as an intermediary entity that mediates between buyers and multiple sellers. The broker aggregates micro-payment transactions from multiple sellers and processes them through a single payment interface, allowing buyers to make payments once while the broker distributes funds to individual sellers. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining payment security through the broker's coordination while dramatically improving convenience by eliminating the need for buyers to interact with each seller's separate payment systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple separate payment transactions into a single aggregated payment processed by the broker. Instead of buyers making individual payments to each seller, the broker consolidates these micro-payments into one transaction that the buyer completes once. This merging approach reduces the number of payment interactions from multiple separate transactions to a single unified payment, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining reliable fund distribution to all sellers.
2Adaptability or versatility
If buyers provide credit card information to multiple sellers, then each seller can process payments independently, but the buyer faces increased security risks and must manage multiple accounts
Solution Approach 1:
The broker serves as a security intermediary that handles all payment information processing centrally. Buyers provide their payment information once to the broker, which then manages all transactions with multiple sellers without requiring buyers to share sensitive information with each individual seller. This approach maintains seller independence in receiving payments while significantly reducing security risks by limiting exposure of payment information to a single trusted intermediary rather than multiple potential targets.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the payment processing function from the seller management function. The broker handles the sensitive payment information processing separately from the sellers' content delivery and account management. This segmentation allows sellers to maintain independence in their operations while the broker centralizes the security-sensitive payment handling, thereby reducing the security risks associated with buyers providing information to multiple sellers.
3Reliability
If traditional payment methods are used for micro-payments, then sellers can receive full payment for each transaction, but the transaction cost makes individual micro-payment transactions impractical
Solution Approach 1:
The broker merges multiple small micro-payment transactions into a single aggregated payment batch. Instead of processing each individual micro-payment separately (which would incur multiple transaction fees), the broker consolidates these small payments into one larger transaction that is processed once. This merging reduces the total transaction costs significantly while still ensuring that each seller receives the correct amount for their individual transactions, thereby making micro-payments practical despite the costs associated with traditional payment methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The broker creates a virtual copy or representation of the payment distribution process. Rather than actually processing multiple separate payment transactions through the payment network (which would incur multiple fees), the broker uses a single actual payment transaction and then digitally allocates or credits the appropriate amounts to each seller's account. This copying approach maintains the appearance of multiple completed transactions for reliability while incurring the cost of only one actual payment processing event.
Data Source
AI summary
A micro-payment system has buyers, sellers, and a broker. The buyers establish accounts with the broker and provide payment information allowing the broker to invoice the buyers. The sellers establish accounts with the brokers and specify terms for accessing items, including electronic content, available from the sellers. The sellers also provide payment information that allows the broker to credit the sellers for sales of the items. The broker aggregates the buyers' micro-payment purchases and invoices the buyers. The broker also aggregates the sellers' micro-payment sales and credits the sellers.