Welcome
to the Secure Accounts web site!
We are excited about our new software product,
SAXAS (Secure Accounts eXchange Arbitration
System), which is nearly ready for release.
Secure Accounts is dedicated to providing the
most powerful financial software on the market.
Our software integrates with the Internet so that
many financial tranasctions, even between parties
thousands of miles apart, can be handled in
seconds.
SAXAS
Financial Infrastructure
Simplicity, Generality, Confidentiality and
Security
| SAXAS is
Software |
Each party has its own
computer running SAXAS and also a
database recording account transactions
and balances. SAXAS is written in Java
and can run on most computers. However,
for maximum security, it should run on a
dedicated processor with a good firewall,
such as Windows NT or Linux. |
| All messages between servers
can be sent over the public Internet
because they are encrypted with the
public key of the recipient. This is much
cheaper than building a private network,
and much more secure. Wherever possible,
public standards are used, such as X509
Digital Certificates, TCP/IP for
transport, Java for portable programming,
JDBC for database portability, etc. |
Public
Standards |
| Digital Certificates |
Each party can be identified
uniquely by a Digital Certificate, which
is a public key signed by a trusted
authority. This allows SAXAS to know that
you actually authorized a transaction. |
| Each person's account
balance is denominated in a specific
accounting unit, sort of like a
"virtual currency". The
conversion of the accounting unit into
the real world is provided by a
"Backer" (eg. receipts for US
Dollar deposits, Magellan Fund shares,
Hours of Professional Time, Communication
Minutes, CPU Cycles, Promotional Coupons,
McDonalds Gift Certificates, Casino
tokens, etc). |
Account
Balances |
| Secure Accounting |
SAXAS maintains the account
balances in a distributed double-entry
system and manages movements of balances
from one account to another. Through
encryption and digital identification, it
makes the entire accounting system
secure, private, robust and verifiable.
Every transaction is stored on at least
two servers for redundance. |
| All transactions are
structured as contracts between the
parties involved. The contract can both
be read by the human parties and
"read" by the SAXAS server and
unambiguously executed. For example, if
Mr. B wants to exchange some Microsoft
PromoDollars for an Office Plug-In that
Ms. A makes, he writes a contract between
them and specifies the amount to be moved
from his account at Microsoft to her
account. The "text" portion of
the contract specifies that he will
receive Ms. A's Office Plug-In in return. |
Contracts
as Transactions
|
| Digital Signatures |
All contracts are signed by
the impacted parties using their Public
Keys. This makes the contracts binding in
many legal jurisdictions and hard to
repudiate. Once the last party signs, the
SAXAS software executes the contract
instantly, the account balances are
transferred among the SAXAS servers, and
an encrypted copy of the final contract
is sent to each party. |
| Some simple applications
could be fielded using just the SAXAS
server and its user interface. However,
most applications will require supporting
web pages, interfaces to legacy databases
and systems, etc. SAXAS has a gateway
interface which allows you to execute
external code when events occur within
SAXAS. For example, when a contract is
executed, the details can be passed to an
external program that "delivers the
product" (eg. gives you access to a
particular website). |
External
Linkages |
| Market Creation |
Since SAXAS allows you to
create an accounting unit that you want
people to accept and use, it also allows
you to create a market for that unit.
This can help to improve the liquidity of
your unit and its reputation. If desired,
the software will automatically match up
client buy and sell orders than convert
that unit into others. For example, an
accounting unit backed by shares in a
mutual fund could be traded for one
backed by deposits of government
currency. In this way, public prices can
be established for all accounting units. |
| Usage of the SAXAS
infrastructure in a financial application
is very cost effective. For end-users
(low-volume personal usage), the software
is free. For commercial users, the price
per executed contract is never more than
1 US cent. |
Low
Cost |
Please watch this web page for announcements. We will be doing beta testing within the next month.
For
more information, send email to info@secureaccounts.com -
Secure
Accounts Ltd.
949
Old Ta
The Valley, Anguilla
British West Indies
(264) 497-3255
Last updated 19 May 1998
Copyright © 1998 - All Rights Reserved, Secure
Accounts Ltd.
SAXAS is a trademark of Secure Accounts Ltd.
|
