GLOSSARY TERMS

Digital cash

An encrypted form of cash which can be sent to merchants as payment in online transacitons. Digital cash can be either "digital coinage" downloaded to a user's PC from a participating bank or a digital money account with a bank.

Digital certificate
Online identification used to authenticate a customer, merchant and a financial institution. Digital certificates are used to encrypt the information exchanged in SET transactions. Certificates are public keys digitally signed by some trusted authority, such as a financial institution, to identify the user of the public key.

Digital money
Similar to digital cash, but also includes the use of software-based secure credit card transactions.

Digital signatures
An electronic signature that cannot be forged. A digital signature is generated from a computed digest of the text encrypted and sent with the text message. When the recipient receives the text, the signature is decrypted and the digest is retrieved. If the digests match, the message is proven to be from the sender.

Digital wallet

A digital wallet holds digital money, purchased and used similar to travelers' checks. A digital wallet may also contain your credit card information and a digital certificate identifying you as the cardholder. Also called an e-wallet.

Discount rate

A percentage of the dollar amount of each transaction charged by the processing company to the merchant. Put simply, this is the processor's fee for handling the transaction for you.

Draft/Sales Draft
Documentation verifying that a product or service was purchased.