Federated architecture for electronic payments using a payment bus

Abstract

Described herein is an Internet of payments, i.e., a loosely coupled, federated architecture for electronic payment in which payers and payees interact through an Internet-based store-and-forward payment bus to complete an electronic payment. Merchants may use any payment service or gateway and any device to place a payment request on the payment bus; similarly, payers may use any payment service or gateway from any device to make a payment toward the payment request. Embodiments describe how this invention addresses different types of payments including contactless physical payments, online payments and vending machine and kiosk payments, with scenarios illustrating voluntary donations, paying a restaurant check with tips from a mobile device, automated actions at the completion of a payment (e.g., issuing a ticket by a ticketing kiosk) etc.