AN OWNER-CONTROLLED CARRIER OF VALUE, A PAYMENT INFRASTRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THIS INFRASTRUCTURE

摘要

The carrier for representing a monetary value as a means of payment comprises a substrate, a control unit mounted to the substrate, a value store for storing a carrier value of the carrier. and an interface circuit for electronic communication of an external device with the control unit. The carrier further comprises an owner store for storing the current owner of the earner. the current owner can e.g. be displayed on a display device of the carrier, or it can be used for restricting certain privileged operations on the carrier to its current owner. A large number of such carriers is used in a payment infrastructure having a plurality of terminal devices that are able to communicate with the carriers through their interface circuits, The infrastructure further comprises a central server device, Values can be transferred to and/or from individual carriers by various methods. A number of measures are described to protect the carriers and the rest of the infrastructure horn tampering.