System and method for providing anonymous payments
OwnerRobert John Marsinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are disclosed for enabling anonymous financial transactions to be conducted using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs. Preferred embodiments of the system comprise an entitlement system that validates information to enable anonymous payments and receipt of payments using mobile devices. Payments may be initiated by communicating a desire to make a payment to a nearby payee. Preferred embodiments utilize short-range communication to form an electronic agreement between the payer and payee as to the payment of an amount from the payer to the payee. Further, the system uses the methods described herein for completing the transactions in an anonymous manner, preventing disclosure of the identities of both the Payer and Payee.
Claims20
A computer implemented method for conducting anonymous payments, said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving, at an entitlement system, a payment token from a payer device,
- verifying, at said entitlement system, legitimacy of said payment token,
- correlating said payment token with an acceptance token received by said entitlement system from a payee device,
- retrieving, from the entitlement system, a first publicly-safe data and identifier information for a payer associated with the payer device;
- retrieving from the entitlement system, a second publicly-safe data and identifier for a payee associated with the payee device
- formulating a payment transaction message using the first and second publicly-safe data and identifiers;
- transmitting said payment transaction message to a financial processing system;
- receiving, at said entitlement system, payment transaction confirmation from said financial processing system;
- formulating, at said entitlement system, a payment status message, wherein said payment status message comprises a status of a payment to be made by said payer to said payee;
- and
- transmitting said payment status message to one or more of said payer device and said payee device.
A computer implemented system for conducting anonymous payments, said system comprising:
- an entitlement system adapted to process information related to anonymous payments;
- a processor, operably coupled to said entitlement system;
- a memory that is not a transitory propagating signal, the memory connected to the processor and encoding computer readable instructions, including processor executable program instructions, the computer readable instructions accessible to the processor, wherein the processor executable program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, at an entitlement system, a payment token from a payer device,
- verifying, at said entitlement system, legitimacy of said payment token,
- correlating said payment token with an acceptance token received by said entitlement system from a payee device,
- retrieving, from the entitlement system, a first publicly-safe data and identifier information for a payer associated with the payer device;
- retrieving from the entitlement system, a second publicly-safe data and identifier for a payee associated with the payee device
- formulating a payment transaction message using the first and second publicly-safe data and identifiers;
- transmitting said payment transaction message to a financial processing system;
- receiving, at said entitlement system, payment transaction confirmation from said financial processing system;
- formulating, at said entitlement system, a payment status message, wherein said payment status message comprises a status of a payment to be made by said payer to said payee;
- and
- transmitting said payment status message to one or more of said payer device and said payee device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.