SHOPPING is much the same the world over. As long as you have the correct
currency in your purse it is easy to find ways to spend it.
Shopping on the Internet is less straightforward. Every electronic currency
comes with special software that must be used when paying with that system. It
is as if you had to be fluent in the language of the country you were in before
you were allowed to buy anything.
Some companies fear that unless this changes, the growth of Internet commerce
will be stifled. Now 30 companies have got together to create an electronic
wallet that will be able to handle any and every digital currency. Last month,
the Open Trading Protocol consortium released the specifications for its
multi-currency wallet.
The aim is to hide the software associated with the different Internet
payment schemes, so that no matter which one is used people will go through
precisely the same process when ordering and paying. The idiosyncrasies of each
system will be translated so that, to the shopper, everything will look exactly
the same.
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The wallet is being created using XML—an extension of the more familiar
HTML protocol most Web pages are written in. Some Web designers are already
using XML to create pages, and the latest versions of Web browsers can make use
of it. The wallet will also work with the different security systems the payment
schemes employ.
The consortium counts among its members the developers of most of the large
electronic payment schemes, such as DigiCash, CyberCash and Mondex. So far,
Microsoft and the credit card company Visa International have declined to join
the consortium.
“There is a need for a standard trading system on the Internet,” says a
spokesman for Mondex International. “At the moment every time you perform a
transaction, you need a different wallet.” He says the consortium should make it
possible to buy goods over the Internet from all over the world in exactly the
same way.
