Electronic Money - What Secure Payment Systems are There?

Electronic money has long been high on the wish-list of those doing business (or wishing to do business) online. Proprietary systems such as Compuserve have had secure payment systems for many years, the issue is creating secure payment systems for the Internet. Until means of payment are secure, it seems unlikely that the Internet will reach its full potential as a means of electronic commerce. Current efforts for secure payment systems currently fall into two distinct camps: the first uses the existing credit card system; the second takes a more radical approach.

A credit card system
Until recently, it looked as if there would be a standards war in the market for secure payment based on the existing credit card system. Two rival groups, Microsoft and Visa on the one hand and a grouping including MasterCard, Netscape and IBM on the other were developing separate standards but have now agreed to cooperate on a vendor-independent solution which will be available without charge.