| 摘要 |
<p>The present invention provides a modular infrastructure for electronic commerce that allows electronic financial instruments to work with a variety of different protocols. One embodiment of the present invention receives (602) a request for an operation, and checks (106, 110, 604) compatibility between the operation and available protocols for the operation to determine (605) a set of compatible protocols. Next, the system checks(106, 110, 606) compatibility between the set of compatible protocols and available instruments for the operation to determine (608) a set of compatible instruments. If the set of compatible instruments includes at least one instrument, the system selects a compatible instrument and a corresponding compatible protocol, and uses this instrument and protocol to perform (614) the operation. In a variation on the above embodiment, the act of selecting the compatible protocols and the compatible instrument entails presenting (610) the set of compatible protocols and the set of compatible instruments to a user, and allowing (612) the user to select the compatible protocol and the compatible instrument for the operation. <IMAGE></p> |
