Patent ID: 7020638

Claim:
A method comprising: minting a stick of electronic assets by digitally signing with an issuer's signature a composite of user-provided data items including a user identity, a bottom asset from a bottom of the stick, and a length of the stick; spending one or more assets from the stick at one or more vendors, wherein each expenditure with a particular vendor involves digitally signing with a user's signature a first asset from the stick to be spent and passing the user-signed first asset along with the issuer-signed composite to the particular vendor for verification and subsequently passing any additional assets to be spent without user signature to the particular vendor; and depositing one or more assets collected by the particular vendor by digitally signing with the particular vendor's signature a composite of data items including the user-signed first asset and a last asset spent by the user from the stick and passing the vendor-signed composite along with the issuer-signed composite to the issuer.