Comparing and contrasting micro-payment models for e-commerce systems

The current macro-payment systems used by most e-commerce sites are not suitable for high-volume, low-cost produce or service purposes, such as charging per page for Web site browsing. These payment technologies suffer from the use of heavyweight encryption technologies and reliance on always-online authorisation servers. Micro-payment systems offer an alternative strategy of pay-as-you-go charging, even for very low-cost, very high-volume charging. However, several different micro-payment schemes exist, not all of which are suitable for all e-commerce uses. We compare and contrast several micro-payment models and outline a new micro-payment technology which we have been developing.