Two researchers at Emercoin, a decentralized peer-to-peer (p2p) network providing secure blockchain business services, have recently developed a new technology called Randpay that only allows users to complete payments and transactions with a recipient’s consent. Using this new technology, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, users can also safely and easily micropay specific data values derived from sensors, individual stock quotes, downloaded pictures, search engine results, road tolls and other sources.

“Randpay opens a new niche in the business processes,” Oleg Khovayko, one of the researchers who developed the technology, told TechXplore. “All other micropayment technologies have minimal sum limitations because of the low bound limit of transaction fees. With Randpay, transaction fees are reduced along with payment amounts. As a result, there is no payment minimum and payments can be as small as 1/100000 part of cent, if needed.”

The blockchain protocol developed by the researchers draws inspiration from a system of electronic lottery tickets based on micropayments invented by Ronald Rivest in 1997. In his work, Rivest introduced the concept of electronic lottery tickets, where there is a centralized system and payments can only go through in the presence of a trusted third party and, where possible, a ‘lottery facilitator’.