Electronic cash payment, including the process of online payment by credit card, reduces material costs, transportation costs, etc., and is quick and convenient to use. However, each payment settlement requires the direct participation of the bank as an intermediary, which has certain time and cost overheads, and is not anonymous. The identities of both parties in the transaction cannot be protected, and it is still inconvenient to operate for small amounts of payment. Traditional paper cash is the most commonly used payment tool in people’s daily lives. It is easy and intuitive to use, has low payment costs, and is anonymous and untraceable. This ensures that the freedom of both buyers and sellers is not interfered with, and to a certain extent protects the privacy of customers. It is precisely with the advantages of paper cash that some companies and research institutions have launched a cash-like electronic currency payment system model to meet the personalized needs of online payment in the e-commerce environment.
The cash-like electronic currency payment system model is a new online payment model. Its main online payment tool is cash-like electronic currency, and the more representative one is electronic cash. Quasi-cash also mainly involves three parties, namely the buyer, the seller and their respective opening banks. Among them, the bank opening bank can be the same bank or different banks. In addition, the CA certification center is also involved on the network platform. The basic application process of quasi-cash can be briefly described as the following steps.
(1) The buyer in e-commerce first has a certain amount of deposit in the bank where the account is opened, which corresponds to his quasi-cash account.
(2) Before the buyer and seller start the transaction, the buyer first requests to exchange quasi-cash from the bank through bank deposit, just like withdrawing paper cash from the bank account.
(3) The bank sends the corresponding quasi-cash to the buyer’s computer according to the buyer’s request, and it can be used at will.
(4) The buyer sends the corresponding amount of quasi-cash to the seller’s computer according to the payment amount. After the seller verifies the validity of such cash, the transaction process continues.
(5) The seller can temporarily store the received quasi-cash or send it to the corresponding bank. After the bank clears the account, the corresponding amount of funds in the seller’s account will be increased. The seller can also send the received cash to another business partner, such as a supplier, for online payment.