Privacy-preserving Payments for Transportation Systems

The operation of our society heavily relies on high mobility of people. Not only our social life but also our economy and trade are built upon a system where people need to be able to move around easily. The costs for building and maintaining a suitable transportation infrastructure to satisfy those needs are high, and to charge users is thus a central requirement. This calls for well functioning payment systems satisfying the multitude of requirements that transportation systems impose on them. Electronic payment systems have many benefits over traditional cash payments as they are easy to maintain, can be more secure, reduce revenue collection costs, and can reduce the execution time of a payment. However, as a drawback, currently employed electronic payment systems usually reveal a payer’s identity during a payment which greatly infringes customer privacy. In the transportation domain this allows to generate fine grain patterns of customers’ locations. Cryptographic payment protocols called e-cash have been proposed which allow to preserve a customer’s privacy. E-cash provides provable guarantees for both security and user privacy, as it allows secure, unlinkable payments which do not reveal the identity of the payer during a payment. From a security and privacy perspective these protocols present a good solution. However, even though e-cash protocols have been proposed three decades ago, there are relatively few actual implementations. One reason for this is their high computational complexity which makes an implementation on potential mobile payment devices rather difficult. While customers usually value their privacy they often do not accept to sacrifice convenience. A fast execution of payments is thus a hard constraint, which conflicts with the computational complexity of e-cash schemes. This dissertation analyzes how e-cash can be used to solve the issue of privacy in the domain of transportation payments while satisfying the unique requirements of transportation payment systems and achieving high security and ease of use. Highlyefficient implementations of the underlying cryptographic primitives of e-cash schemes on constrained devices as they might be used in the transportation setting are presented. Based on the efficient implementations of these primitives, e-cash schemes are analyzed with regards to speed and hardware requirements. The results show that e-cash presents a good solution for privacy-preserving payments in the domain of public transport, if the number of coins that have to be spent can be limited. It is further practically shown that this limitation can be alleviated relying on the e-cash based privacy-preserving pre-payments with refunds scheme (P4R). Moreover, it is demonstrated that the promising feature of supporting the encoding of user attributes into electronic coins can be implemented at only moderate extra cost. Finally, an ecash based e-mobility payment scheme is presented which highlights the flexibility and unique advantages of e-cash based transportation payment schemes

Ghana\u27s E-zwich System and the Characteristics of Innovation

In 2008, the Central Bank of Ghana launched the first ever biometric money, e-zwich, in hopes of promoting branchless banking and financial inclusion. Despite been hailed as an innovative policy aimed at transforming the financial industry of the country e-zwich has yet to realize its full potential. A number of studies has been conducted to highlight the many challenges the system faces. This study was also aimed at seeking an explanation to the relative ineffectiveness or failures of e-zwich system but through a theoretical framework. Using Rogers\u27 (2003) framework on the characteristics of innovation, the study seeks to explain why the e-zwich system continues to face significant challenges despite several attempts that have been initiated to help revamp it. Rogers argues that the decision to adopt innovation depends on the innovation\u27s relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability and in essence, the success of the innovation dwells on these characteristics. Therefore, the study attempts to investigate if e-zwich as an innovation exhibited these characteristics prior to it been adopted by the Central Bank

Ghana\u27s E-zwich System and the Characteristics of Innovation

In 2008, the Central Bank of Ghana launched the first ever biometric money, e-zwich, in hopes of promoting branchless banking and financial inclusion. Despite been hailed as an innovative policy aimed at transforming the financial industry of the country e-zwich has yet to realize its full potential. A number of studies has been conducted to highlight the many challenges the system faces. This study was also aimed at seeking an explanation to the relative ineffectiveness or failures of e-zwich system but through a theoretical framework. Using Rogers\u27 (2003) framework on the characteristics of innovation, the study seeks to explain why the e-zwich system continues to face significant challenges despite several attempts that have been initiated to help revamp it. Rogers argues that the decision to adopt innovation depends on the innovation\u27s relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability and in essence, the success of the innovation dwells on these characteristics. Therefore, the study attempts to investigate if e-zwich as an innovation exhibited these characteristics prior to it been adopted by the Central Bank

Inclusive Digital Wallet – a field guide on enhancing the user interface design of an everyday object

The purpose of this study is to build upon past work on digital wallets to establish design requirements for an inclusive digital wallet(s). This research takes an inclusive design approach to define the design requirements, such that the design will be suitable for a wide range of people. The literature review shows a limited number of studies on how textile wallet design informs the design of digital wallets. This research contributes to this topic by combining the concepts of Inclusive Design with the AEIOU framework and Human-Artifact Model to reimagine the design of digital wallets. Rich qualitative information regarding habits and existing textile wallet preferences was gathered by conducting semi-structured interviews with potential users who had visual and dexterity challenges. Three different forms of digital wallet designs were also evaluated during the interviews. The results are presentedto provide a new understanding of digital wallet design in the domain of Inclusive Design

The study of blockchain towards its application to South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)

In recent years, there has been a rapid improvement in the way currencies are perceived, which has led to a rise in digital currencies commonly known as cryptocurrencies (because they are secured by the use of cryptography). Bitcoin was the _rst successful cryptocurrency which allowed users to transact directly with each other without the involvement of the third party (the bank). Bitcoin introduced a new technology known as the blockchain which is considered to be the ext-generation technology". Blockchain is a chronological database used to store all the transactions that have occurred since the inception of Bitcoin. A study of the Blockchain involving its application to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) is presented. This study assesses how the Blockchain functions. The Blockchain has been viewed as the next-generation technology. This study also assesses the application of the Blockchain to other systems other than cryptocurrencies or digital currencies. Recent studies in the literature have proposed applications of the Blockchain to other system (e.g. electronic voting, smart contracts, and intellectual property rights). Although these proposals have been put forward, none has been made speci_cally for SASSA. This study also presents the problems that the Blockchain has (e.g. scalability, security).Recent literature has tried to solve the problem of scalability, by introducing new protocols like mini-blockchain. In addition, this study presents the challenges that SASSA is currently having and it provides details about the attacks that could succeed in the system. The study presents the analysis of the blockchain for its application to SASSA; the analysis includes scalability, performance and security. Based on the analysis, it is shown that the blockchain is not compatible to be applied to SASSA. However, this study proposes a solution to some of the challenges SASSA is currently facing

BICYCLE SHARING IN CHINA: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

This paper systematically explicates the historical developmental stages of China’s bicycle sharing economy including current and future business models. This paper also identifies problems that exist in the evolution of China’s bicycle sharing and provides potential solutions. Furthermore, it proposes a fifth-generation bicycle sharing model, the “intelligent dock-less bicycle sharing” model and analyzes its characteristics and development. The paper concludes with a discussion on the limitations of the study and future research directions

Electronic Payment Systems Observatory (ePSO). Newsletter Issues 9-15

Abstract not availableJRC.J-Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (Seville