Anonymous payment with a verification possibility by a defined party

1. A computerized method for verifying an anonymous payment by a defined party in a communication system providing a public key infrastructure, the method comprising:

receiving a validation message from a merchant party via an input port of a computer, the validation message comprising a proof signature produced by a customer party and an encrypted payment message, the proof signature being derived from a zero-knowledge proof 1) of knowledge of a customer secret key, a customer certificate, and at least one customer attribute, 2) that the encrypted payment message encrypts said customer attribute, and 3) that said customer certificate is valid and is related to said customer secret key, thereby allowing said customer secret key, said customer certificate, and said at least one customer attribute to remain anonymous to said merchant party;

verifying, by said computer, a validity of the proof signature based on an issuing public key, a verification public key, and the encrypted payment message;

decrypting, by said computer, at least part of the encrypted payment message based on a verification secret key corresponding to the verification public key, thereby obtaining a customer information related to the at least one customer attribute; and

in an event of the validity of the proof signature, the computer using the obtained customer information for initializing an authentication of the payment, and, in an event the proof siginature is not valid, the computer provides an indication that the proof siginature was not valid.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the encrypted payment message is derived from the at least one customer attribute and the verification public key.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the encrypted payment message comprises multiple encrypted payment messages.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the customer certificate comprises a certificate signature on a certificate message, the certificate signature being generated by an issuing party using an issuing secret key corresponding to the issuing public key, the certificate message being derived from a customer public key and the at least one customer attribute.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one customer attribute comprises a card number.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one customer attribute comprises an expiration date.

7. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for verifying an anonymous payment by a defined party in a communication system providing a public key infrastructure, the method comprising:

receiving a validation message from a merchant party, the validation message comprising a proof signature produced by a customer party and an encrypted payment message, the proof signature being derived from a zero-knowledge proof 1) of knowledge of a customer secret key, a customer certificate, and at least one customer attribute, 2) that the encrypted payment message encrypts said customer attribute, and 3) that said customer certificate is valid and is related to said customer secret key, thereby allowing said customer secret key, said customer certificate, and said at least one customer attribute to remain anonymous to said merchant party;

verifying a validity of the proof signature based on an issuing public key, a verification public key, and the encrypted payment message;

decrypting at least part of the encrypted payment message based on a verification secret key corresponding to the verification public key, thereby obtaining a customer information related to the at least one customer attribute; and

in an event of the validity of the proof signature, using the obtained customer information for initializing the authentication of the payment, and, in an event the proof signature is not valid, providing an indication that the proof signature was not valid.

8. The program storage device according to claim 7 , wherein the encrypted payment message is derived from the at least one customer attribute and the verification public key.

9. The program storage device according to claim 7 , wherein the encrypted payment message comprises multiple encrypted payment messages.

10. The program storage device according to claim 7 , wherein the customer certificate comprises a certificate signature on a certificate message, the certificate signature being generated by an issuing party using an issuing secret key corresponding to the issuing public key, the certificate message being derived from a customer public key and the at least one customer attribute.

11. The program storage device according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one customer attribute comprises a card number.

12. The program storage device according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one customer attribute comprises an expiration date.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said defined person executing said verifying comprises a validation party and said authentication of the payment is executed by an issuing party and said validation party and said issuing party are isolated from said customer party and said merchant party, each of said validation party, said issuing party, said customer party, and said merchant party having respective secret keys and respective public keys.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said validation party and said issuing party comprise a combined entity.