In primeval times barter was the legitimate mode of transaction followed by a monetary exchange, which soon lost its sheen in the light of plastic money. An endless number of initiatives work on the Internet Payment Front. Ever since the dawn of e-commerce, credit cards have ruled the roost, primarily because they were already in wide circulation and used extensively by the brick and mortar business. However, credit cards proved to be promising for the day-to-day transactions in the physical world, they faced problem for their acceptance in the virtual world.

Why Payment Systems?

Credit cards managed to take care of security issues through signatures and photo cards. But virtual world faced imminent threat to its security due to the lack of necessary tools for validating the signature or the facial features of the logged in users. Hence the only proof of identity to be trusted was the valid credit card number and PIN number. This implied higher security concerns which triggered credit card companies to charge higher for internet enabled merchant accounts. (The account needed by merchant to accept credit card payment on the Internet). As a result credit cards became too expensive for smaller purchases. This change initiated a host of new payment systems which gradually sprang up facilitating increased security on the net and enabling micro payments (up to 10 cents) or both. This field has an exponential rise in the number of new comers joining with equal players leaving the field. The key players in payment system are Ccavenue, PayPal, epassporte, Authorize.net, Verisign etc.