Patent ID: 7024396

Claim:
A transaction system for enabling a merchant and a consumer to conduct a point-of-sale (POS) transaction, the transaction system comprising: a host transaction processor for generating a merchant authorization key and a consumer authorization key which co-operates as a pair with the merchant authorization key; a consumer payment server including (i) means for receiving the consumer authorization key from the host transaction processor, and (ii) means for communicating the consumer authorization key to a portable wireless client device of the consumer to allow the consumer to send the consumer authorization key from the portable wireless client device to a POS terminal of the merchant; and a merchant transaction server including (i) means for receiving the merchant authorization key from the host transaction processor, (ii) means for receiving the consumer authorization key from the POS terminal of the merchant after the POS terminal of the merchant has received the consumer authorization key from the portable wireless client device of the consumer, and (iii) means for comparing the merchant authorization key with the consumer authorization key when the consumer authorization key is received from the POS terminal of the merchant.