MobiCoin: Digital cash for M-commerce

Advances in mobile device technology have given rise to applications that rely on trusted hardware. These have also made the once only virtually possible ideas into real applications. One such application is transforming the mobile phone into a mobile wallet with digital cash that supports both anonymity (as in real cash) and security. In this paper, we introduce MobiCoin, a protocol to support M-commerce transactions. It employs SIM cards for data protection and active certificates for distributed trust. MobiCoin is secure, durable, fair, atomic and accountable. It may be used as a digital cash protocol with a mobile digital wallet without the trade-off for anonymity. In addition, it is an offline protocol, thus increasing the efficiency and availability of m-commerce transactions. The paper describes the model, the infrastructure, and the details of the protocol. It also discusses some implementation issues and security implications of using the protocol.