Standards and verification for fair-exchange and atomicity in e-commerce transactions

Electronic commerce can be defined as the conduct of commerce in goods and services, with the assistance of telecommunications and telecommunications-based tools. The economic growth potential of e-commerce is extraordinary—but so are the challenges that lie on the path toward success. One of the more pressing challenges is how to ensure the integrity and reliability of the transaction process: key aspects being fair-exchange and atomicity assurance. This paper delineates an extended fair-exchange standard, which includes atomicity assurance, intended for a wide audience including e-commerce designers, managers, users, and auditors. We demonstrate how such a standard prevents or mitigates important e-commerce concerns. To bridge theory with practice, we illustrate how the 0020-0255/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ins.2005.01.016 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 801 422 2308; fax: +1 801 422 0621. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B.B. Anderson), [email protected] (J.V. Hansen), [email protected] (P.B. Lowry), [email protected] (S.L. Summers). Information Sciences 176 (2006) 1045–1066 www.elsevier.com/locate/ins application of model checking can be used to verify the correctness of the implementation of e-commerce protocols to prevent the failure of such protocols when unforeseen circumstances occur. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.