The Nuts and Bolts of Micropayments: a Survey Syed Taha Ali Dylan Clarke Patrick McCorry NUST School of Electrical Engineering Newcastle University University College London and Computer Science, Pakistan United Kingdom United Kingdom Email:
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[email protected] Abstract—We are witnessing a veritable explosion of interest in with direct and immediate applications in reviving journalism new electronic payments systems and modalities, such as digital [3] and supporting the music industry [4]. The ability to wallets, mobile and contactless payments, and cryptocurrencies economically transfer minuscule amounts of money at high such as Bitcoin. One area of research and commercial inter- est at the confluence of these trends, which is also receiving speeds will empower dynamic new pricing models where dig- reinvigorated attention, is micropayments. Indeed, a workable ital content such as online newspapers, magazines, and music micropayments system, one that lets users purchase digital albums can be unbundled, allowing consumers to purchase content in an easy and “hassle-free” manner with payments in individual news stories, articles, and songs. Furthermore, with the order of cents and lower, has long been regarded as the holy pricing in the sub-dollar range, users will be encouraged grail of web-publishing. The research community has actively worked on this problem over the past two decades, numerous to increase spending and also engage in impulse purchases, creative solutions have been presented, business ventures have thereby opening up powerful new revenue streams. been launched, but a mainstream solution has yet to emerge. There have been two main waves of innovation in designing In this paper, we undertake a comprehensive survey of key and deploying micropayment systems, the first in the late trends and innovations in the development of research-based 1990s and the second in the 2000s [5] [6].