Patent ID: 8327147

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating an electronic receipt in a communication system providing a public key infrastructure, the step of generating an electronic receipt comprising the following steps: receiving by a second party (A) a request message (RM) from a first party (U), the request message (RM) comprising a transaction request (TR) and a first public key (P U ) based on a secret (S U ) owned by the first party (U) and wherein the secret (S U ) is associated with at least a secret (S UE ) of a further public key (P UE ) of the first party (U), electronically signing at least part of the request message (RM) with a public key (P A ) assigned to the second party (A) for issuance as an electronic receipt (L U ) to the first party U; said method further comprising: receiving, at said second party (A), the further public key (P UE ) and a first encryption (E 1 ) of the secret (S UE ) of the further public key (P UE ) under the first public key (P U ); and publishing, by said second party (A), said first encryption (E 1 ) to establish a link between the secret (S U ) of the first public key (P U ) and the secret (S UE ) of the further public key (P UE ); wherein an electronic receipt ( L U ) is issued to said user (U) by a certificate authority ( A ) having an associated public key ( P A ), said method further comprising: receiving, at said second party (A), a second encryption (E 2 ) of a secret ( S U ) of a user's second public key ( P U ) under the first public key (P U ) from user U; and publishing, by said second party (A), said second encryption (E 2 ) to establish a link between secret (S U ) of the first public key (P U ) and the secret S U of the second public key P U , and validating user ownership of said electronic receipt by verifying a cryptographic proof that the P U is a public key derived from the secret ( S U ), and the L U is a signature with respect to the associated public key P A on at least the P U and the second encryption (E 2 ) is the encryption of the secret S U under the first public key P U .