The Nuts and Bolts of Micropayments: A Survey
This is an incremental survey paper that synthesizes existing knowledge to address the problem of designing effective micropayment systems for researchers and developers.
The paper surveys micropayment systems, arguing that past failures stem from overemphasis on technical aspects while neglecting usability, psychology, and economics, and it identifies challenges and strategies to guide future development.
In this paper, we undertake a comprehensive survey of key trends and innovations in the development of research-based and commercial micropayment systems. Based on our study, we argue that past solutions have largely failed because research has focused heavily on cryptographic and engineering innovation, whereas fundamental issues pertaining to usability, psychology, and economics have been neglected. We contextualize the range of existing challenges for micropayments systems, discuss potential deployment strategies, and identify critical stumbling blocks, some of which we believe researchers and developers have yet to fully recognize. We hope this effort will motivate and guide the development of micropayments systems.