Patent ID: 8523061

Claim:
A method for validating fare cards at a control terminal remote from a control system, comprising: receiving, from the control system at the control terminal, a reference list of fare card control numbers, wherein each fare card control number in the reference list is generated by performing a one-way function on a fare card identification number corresponding to a fare card with a valid fare; reading, at the control terminal, a fare card identification number from a fare card; generating, at the control terminal, a hashed number from the fare card identification number read from the fare card using the one-way function; and identifying, at the control terminal, the hashed number in the reference list to validate payment of the fare, wherein the fare card control numbers in the reference list and the hashed number are the same bit length, and wherein bit length of the fare card control numbers in the reference list and the hashed number is less than the bit length of the fare card identification number read from the fare card.