Microcash: Efficient Off-Line Small Payments

An off-line electronic cash scheme is proposed that is suitable for small payments. The approach is innovative, in that each coin may be efficiently verified by the same or different merchants during payment. The scheme relies on a batch signature technique to efficiently sign and verify individually spent coins; coins may also be deposited in batch manner. The scheme outlined differs considerably from conventional micropayments schemes by servicing a number of cash-like properties, such as off-line processing, detection of double spent coins, and ability to spend at different merchants. Additionally, the scheme eliminates a number of processing overheads that are apparent to some existing micropayment schemes.