Researchers from the University of Oxford have created a protocol for making
electronic payments via mobile phones: The technology provides a secure channel
that its inventors hope will be rolled into smartphone mobile banking or other
payment applications.
The idea for the technology came out of the U.K. Payments Council's plans to
eliminate check payments by 2018. The goal of the Oxford project is to provide a
secure channel for making peer-to-peer and person-to-person payments, says Bill
Roscoe, a professor at Oxford who headed up the project. The protocol lets the
payer conduct transactions via Bluetooth, WiFi, the Internet, SMS messaging, or
on a landline phone.
