On e-payment systems - a brief note

In ecommerce study, e-payment is one of the major topics. There are lots of business and technical details about this topic. I would like you to focus on the following 3 issues in learning this topic:

1. Examine the physical counterparts of the e-payment system to learn its design nature and critical success factors. For example, when you study e-cash, you need to ask what are the main characteristics of cash: normally no transaction cost of using cash even in the case of micro-payment, anonymity of the payers; wide acceptability of coins for payment settlement (as a legal tender), etc. A e-cash system, such as the octopus card in Hong Kong, should possess the same characteristics (or should almost possess all these characteristics); in the case of e-wallet, you need to take out your wallet to see what are stored there. You will find your ID card, your public library card, a few credit cards and some money, etc. In this case, your e-wallet should be able to do the same things to be considered as a e-wallet.
2. For a specific e-payment system to be adopted successfully in a society, it needs to be supported by a number of stakeholders, e.g. hardware and software vendors of such a system, merchants, consumers, etc., who should find it valuable to them in the first place. The e-payment system needs to be approved by the central bank of your country, because, issuance of e-payment instrument affects the money supply of your country; and the law-enforcers of your country are concerned that such a e-payment system will not be used for money-laundering purpose.
3. The legal status of your e-payment system should be clear to the stakeholders concerned; this explains, for example, why e-check is a good e-payment system because there is already an established system of business law on bill of exchange and check.

The physical implementation of a e-payment system requires specific Information Technology knowledge, e.g smartcard technology and encryption technology, etc., while a few of the critical success factors of its adoption are related to business and legal considerations, which differ by countries.

References

1. Credit card on the Internet: http://www.goodtime.net/mscredit.htm
2. On electronic bill payment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Bill_Payment_%26_Presentment
3. e-commerce payment system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce_payment_system
4. Law on bill of exchange: http://is.muni.cz/do/1499/el/estud/praf/ps06/bills/materialy/files/019text.html
5. On e-check: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/electroniccheck.asp#axzz1Xa7bFZSL
6. On electronic money: http://everything.explained.at/Electronic_money/
7. On EPS: http://www.eps.com.hk/eng/cust_eps.asp
8. On e-wallet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_wallet
9. On micro-payment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment
10. On smart card: http://www.webopedia.com/index.php/TERM/S/smart_card.html
11. On purchasing card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_card