Patent ID: 6873977

Claim:
A method for achieving seller-buyer (SB) anonymity for unsophisticated users, comprising the steps of: providing to a buyer an interface for random selection of a plurality q+1 of unique session keys and a cycle-free path of length q through a pool of business partners; using said unique session keys as public keys to encrypt an order of said buyer from a seller, first encrypting said order with a public key of said seller, then appending to said encrypted buy order an identity of said seller together with said qth session key and encrypting said appended buy order with the public key of the qth business partner, then appending to said encrypted appended buy order an identity of said qth business partner together with said (q−1)th session key and further encrypting said appended buy order with the public key of the (q−1)th business partner, continuing in like fashion until said encrypted appended buy order is further appended with the identity of the 2 nd business partner together with the 1 st session key and said further appended buy order is finally encrypted with the public key of the 1 st business partner, said finally encrypted buy order being given a unique 1 st order number transmitting said finally encrypted buy order to said seller via said business partners through said cycle-free path, each said business partner decrypting said encrypted buy order with said business partner's private key to obtain said appended session key and said identity of a next business partner in said path together with a next level encrypted buy order and then assigning a further unique order number and forwarding the next level encrypted buy order to said next business partner along with said further unique order number; returning from said seller to said buyer a fulfillment of said buy order via said business partners through said cycle-free path, each said business partner encoding its signature and said fulfillment with said appended session key prior to forwarding; designating a Coding Station (CS) that will provide all parties with encryption capabilities; creating by CS a network of relay stations RS 1 , RS 2 , . . . , RS N belonging to companies Co 1 , Co 2 , . . . , Co N whose description will be posted on a home page HP of CS; arranging by CS alliances with one or several Banks Bank 1 , Bank 2 , . . . , Bank M which will be customers' entrance to transaction processes and with a plurality of vendors Vend 1 , Vend 2 , . . . ; publishing by CS all information on relay-stations, banks, and vendors in the home page; placing an order by a customer from one of said plurality of vendors by going to the home page HP of CS and choosing a list of K relays Co i1 , Co i2 , . . . , Co iK out of the N possibilities offered by HP, selecting a bank among Bank 1 , Bank 2 , . . . , and sending the order to that bank, said order placement being done through an automated user interface; and forwarding the order through the path Co i1 , Co i2 , . . . , Co iK so that payment will be guaranteed if the order is delivered.