Patent ID: 6952773

Claim:
A method of requesting a plurality of account authorities to execute a respective instruction with regard to a respective account maintained by each respective account authority and for which each account authority has previously associated in a computer database the same public key of a public-private key pair with a respective unique identifier of the respective account such that the public key is retrievable by each respective account authority based on the respective unique identifier comprising the steps of: (a) for a first account maintained by a first account authority, (i) composing a first electronic message including, (A) an instruction regarding the first account, and (B) a first unique identifier by which the first account authority identifies the first account from accounts maintained by the first account authority, (ii) digitally sing the first electronic message using the private key of the public-private key pair, and (iii) sending the electronic message and digital signature to the first account authority over a communications medium, and (b) for a second account maintained by a second account authority, (i) composing a second electronic message including, (A) an instruction regarding the second account, and (B) a second unique identifier by which the second account authority identifies the second account from accounts maintained by the second account authority, (ii) digitally signing the second electronic message using the same private key of the public-private key pair, and (iii) sending the electronic message and digital signature to the second account authority over a communications medium.