Methods of facilitating merchant transactions using a computerized system including a set of titles

A computer-implemented method for facilitating a transaction between a first entity and a second entity via a network comprising a plurality of computing devices, the method comprising:

• storing a plurality of title objects corresponding to a plurality of entities including the first and second entities on one or more of the computing devices, each title object representing a plurality of rights each of which may be redeemed by presentation of the title object to a title-enabled process operating in the network, each title object having previously been encoded with an updateable state configured to prevent duplicate redemption of the rights represented by the title object, each title object also having been previously encoded with one or more pointers to one or more resources in the network to which the rights correspond;
• exchanging selected ones of the title objects between the first and second entities to effect the transaction and transfer of the rights represented by the selected title objects between the first and second entities, wherein exchanging the selected title objects comprises transferring control of a first one of the selected title objects from the first entity to the second entity, and transferring control of a second one of the selected title objects from the second entity to the first entity;
• and
• in conjunction with exchange of the selected title objects, updating the updateable states encoded in each of the selected title objects to agree with correspondingly updated externally stored states stored separately for each of the selected title objects to transfer the rights represented by the selected title objects between the first and second entities and to ensure that only a single valid instance of each of the selected title objects is in circulation in the network.