Technical characteristics
*Token-based or account-based specify the medium of value exchange.
*Ease of use or convenience relates to both subscription to and usage of a system for both new and experienced users. It must be easy and convenient for the customer to use.
*Anonymity is relevant only to customers and suggests that it is impossible to discover the customer’s identity. Although anonymous, the payer is protected. An elementary property of physical cash is that the association between customers and their purchases is untraceable.
*Scalability specifies whether a micropayment system is able to cope with increasing payment volume and user base without significant performance degradation. Micropayment systems also have the necessary features for small amount transaction through simple and reasonable secure operations.
*Validation determines whether a payment system is able to process payment with or without online contact with a third party.
*Security prevents and detects attacks on a payment system and fraud attempts, and protects sensible payment information. It must capable of minimizing user fraud, such as forgery and double-spending. It does not allow duplicate transactions and only honors complete transactions.
*Interoperability allows users of one payment system to pay or get paid by users of another system.
*It must be able to perform transaction without long delays.
Non-technical characteristics
*Trust defines the user’s confidence with respect to the trustworthiness of the micropayment system.
*Coverage expresses the percentage (or number) of customers and merchants that can use the micropayment system.
*Privacy relates to the protection of personal payment information. The system ensure privacy, integrity and authentication of the involved parties and their data.
*Pre-paid or post-paid determines how customers use a micropayment system.
*Range of payments and multicurrency support specify the minimum and maximum payment values supported by a micropayment system. The protocol also supports multiple denomination and range of payment values.
*Universal: specifies whether a micropayment system is available for international users or only for national users.
*Reduced costs: The cost of each micropayment should be small enough to ensure the system feasibility.
Characteristics of micropayment system
