Secure, anonymous authentication for electronic purchasing with dynamic determination of payment pricing and terms and cross vendor transaction resolution

Abstract

Micro-payments for electronic sales transactions are securely and anonymously enabled by a central payment agent maintaining declining balance accounts for users and separately authenticating and authorizing customer and vendor transaction requests and payment upon confirmation of delivery. No personal billing information for the customer need be provided to the vendor, maintaining anonymity of the vendor. The vendor may electively set a pricing and terms policy allowing the price of the goods or services to dynamically vary across a series of transactions or transaction portions based on events such as quantity, bandwidth, or aggregate amount paid. A transaction may involve goods or services from multiple vendors in an apparent single transaction, with payment resolved among all participating vendors.