Title: An e-commerce fair exchange protocol that enforces the customer to be honest

Authors: Abdullah Alaraj, Malcolm Munro

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK. ' Department of Computer Science, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

Abstract: A new optimistic fair exchange protocol between a Customer (C) and a Merchant (M) is presented, that makes minimum use of a Trusted Third Party. The protocol is for exchanging a payment with a digital product in the B2C domain. A novel feature of the protocol is that once the parties have agreed to the exchange, then one party is encouraged to be honest whereas the other party is forced to be honest. The protocol has the following features: (1) it comprises of only three messages sent between C and M in the exchange phase; (2) it guarantees strong fairness for both C and M; (3) it allows both parties to be sure of the item that they will receive and (4) it automatically resolves disputes online.

Keywords: e-commerce; fair exchange; protocols; security; honesty; electronic commerce; trusted third party; dispute resolution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2008.021437

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2008 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.114 - 131

Published online: 27 Nov 2008 *

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