Corporate Development Wave Systems Corp. Napster and music. The Internet has proven to be a revolutionary distribution medium for digital goods. Unfortunately, the new model currently only applies to content which is either free or stolen. The missing element for the Internet to realize its potential as the backbone for worldwide e-commerce is trust. The openness of the personal computer, a key driver of the information age, is now the major inhibitor to digital e-commerce.
Today there is no trust at the edge of the network.
Trust and security only exist in the centralized servers. Value exchange, i.e. commerce, for digital goods and services over the Internet can only be achieved when the user devices can be trusted to protect the goods. When e-commerce transactions can be fully performed in user devices, with persistent protection of the digital goods and services, dramatic changes in the distribution and selling models will be realized. Trust is more than just security. The level of trust is directly proportional to the level of security of the system with secure hardware ultimately providing a superior trusted environment to software by itself.