Electronic payment system and electronic payment method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12307441-B2
Application number	US-202118022338-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2021
Priority date	Aug 31, 2020
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

A transaction has: lock release information; and a lock release condition. A first transaction has a record with a plurality of successive lock release conditions. A lock release condition of the first transaction includes public key information pertaining to an electronic signature different from the electronic signature of the issuer of the transaction. An asset/fund settlement device posts the first transaction in a ledger and determines executability of a second transaction issued after the first transaction by comparing, in accordance with the order of the plurality of successive lock release conditions, the lock release information and the lock release condition which have been posted in the ledger to lock release information and a lock release condition in a ledger of the second transaction. Thus, in a DvP transaction using electronic settlement, locked assets are safely returned, and deterioration in liquidity of assets/funds is avoided when the transaction is not established.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electronic payment system comprising:
a transaction issuing device for issuing transactions relating to assets/funds;
an asset/fund settlement device connected to said transaction issuing device via a network and configured to settle assets/funds based on transactions issued by said transaction issuing device; and
a shared storage area in communication with the transaction issuing device and the asset/fund settlement device, the shared storage area storing a plurality of templates including a first transaction template for generating a first transaction and a second transaction template for generating a second transaction, the first and second transaction templates indicating respective attributes of the first transaction and the second transaction, the respective attributes including a transaction identifier (ID), asset/fund ID, an amount, unlock information, and unlock conditions, wherein
each transaction of the transactions has a quantity of assets/funds, the unlock information including an electronic signature of a transaction issuer, and the unlock conditions including a trader's public key,
said first transaction generated by the transaction issuing device and corresponding to the first transaction template includes records holding multiple consecutive unlock conditions,
the unlock condition for said first transaction includes public key information related to an electronic signature different from that of said transaction issuer,
said asset/fund settlement device posts said first transaction issued by said transaction issuing device to a ledger, determines whether or not the second transaction corresponding to the second transaction template and issued after said first transaction can be executed by means of collating unlock information and unlock condition posted to said ledger with unlock information and unlock condition of the second transaction when posted to said ledger, according to the order of the plurality of consecutive unlock conditions of said first transaction, and executes said second transaction based at least on the second transaction having been determined to be executable.

2. The electronic payment system according to claim 1 ,
wherein said transaction unlock information further comprises secret information;
wherein said transaction unlock condition of said transaction comprises a hash value for said secret information of said transaction unlock information; and
wherein said unlock condition for said first transaction includes a hash value different from secret information held by said transaction issuer.

3. The electronic payment system according to claim 2 ,
wherein, in transactions that a first trader owning a first asset/fund and a second trader owning a second asset/fund exchange the first asset/fund and the second asset/fund respectively,
the unlock information of the transaction issued when said first trader cancels a transaction, includes an electronic signature and secret information included in a transaction issued by said second trader.

4. The electronic payment system according to claim 1 ,
wherein said transaction issuing device has a transaction status management table corresponding to the transactions issued by said transaction issuing device;
wherein records in the transaction status management table are categorize with “urgent” and “non-urgent”; and
wherein said transaction issuing device preferentially issues a transaction corresponding to a record designated as “urgent”.

5. An electronic payment method by an electronic payment system having a transaction issuing device for issuing transactions relating to assets/funds, an asset/fund settlement device connected to said transaction issuing device via a network for performing settlement of assets/funds based on transactions issued by said transaction issuing device, and a shared storage area in communication with the transaction issuing device and the asset/fund settlement device, the shared storage area storing a plurality of templates including a first transaction template for generating a first transaction and a second transaction template for generating a second transaction, the first and second transaction templates indicating respective attributes of the first transaction and the second transaction, the respective attributes including a transaction identifier (ID), asset/fund ID, an amount, unlock information, and unlock conditions,
each transaction of the transactions has a quantity of assets/funds, the unlock information including an electronic signature of a transaction issuer and secret information, and the unlock conditions including a trader's public key and a hash value of said unlock information,
said first transaction generated by the transaction issuing device and corresponding to the first transaction template includes records holding multiple consecutive unlock conditions,
said unlock condition for said first transaction includes public key information related to an electronic signature different from that of said transaction issuer,
said electronic payment method comprising:
posting, by said asset/fund settlement device, the first transaction issued by said transaction issuing device to a ledger; and
determining, by said asset/fund settlement device, whether or not the second transaction corresponding to the second transaction template and issued after the first transaction can be executed, by means of collating the unlock information and unlock condition posted to said ledger with the unlock information and unlock condition of the second transaction when posted to said ledger, according to the order of the plurality of consecutive unlock conditions of said first transaction, and executing the second transaction based at least one the second transaction having been determined to be executable.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• NAGAHORA Suguru
• Yamada Nishio
• Hashimoto Yasunori
• Sakai Tomokazu
• Fukuchi Kaiho

Classifications

• G06Q20/3829

  involving key management · CPC title

• G06Q20/3827

  Use of message hashing · CPC title

• G06Q40/04

  Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange · CPC title

• H04L9/32

  including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system {or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials} · CPC title

• G09C1/00

  Apparatus or methods whereby a given sequence of signs, e.g. an intelligible text, is transformed into an unintelligible sequence of signs by transposing the signs or groups of signs or by replacing them by others according to a predetermined system (cryptographic typewriters G09C3/00) · CPC title