Introductory Architectural Notes

In the trade, we refer to the wallet as the protocol manager for a given system, such as e-gold, SOX/Ricardo, E-protocol, Mondex, etc. Webfunds strives to permit multiple wallets to exist underneath it, and offers the user a coherent interface.

For ourselves, we refer to the plugin as the application that gets plugged in to the top, using the cash management capabilities of the system, perhaps provided by multiple wallets. Here, we would be referring to plugins for u2u, retail, loyalty, auctions.

            +------+   +-------+   +-------+   +------+  
            | u2u  |   |auction|   |loyalty|   |retail|  
          +-|plugin|---|plugin |---|plugin |---|plugin|---+
          | |      |   |       |   |       |   |      |   |
          | +------+   +-------+   +-------+   +------+   |
          |                                               |
          |     c o r e    W e b F u n d s    a p p l     |
          |                                               |
          |    c o m m o n    c a p a b i l i t i e s     |   
          |                                               |
          |G U I - n e t - D B - P K I - c o n t r a c t s|
          |                                               |
          |     +------+   +------+   +------+   +------+ | 
          |     | SOX  |   |E-gold|   |Mondex|   |  E   | | 
          +-----|wallet|---|wallet|---|wallet|---|wallet|-+
                |      |   |      |   |      |   |      |
                +------+   +------+   +------+   +------+

Of course, it gets confusing, as the terms are not settled. For example, many systems refer to the entire application as a wallet, and if it is a plugin into Netscape, that confuses the issue ever more.

Terminology

Ricardo terminology follows.

Application

An Application is a programme that does something. For example,

• WebFunds is a user client that can hold different wallets, and can use the payment technologies within in a sensible fashion.
• Teller is a merchant application that can receive requests to deposit incoming payments and requests to write outgoing payments. It only works with one wallet, being the SOX Wallet. (This application is being written internally by Systemics.)

Wallet

A Wallet is a module offering payments of a particular type and technology. E.g., SOX wallet can do SOX payments and deposits.

There are two other wallets in preparation for WebFunds, which will be better described once complete. Both of these are likely to be extensions of the SOX Wallet.

Each Wallet conforms to the interface located in webfunds/client/WalletInterface.java. In the case of the SOX wallet, the module is at webfunds/client/sox/SOXWallet.java.

The SOX Wallet will probably change to insert a GUI-free wallet (and internal interface) in something like webfunds/soxwallet or webfunds/sox/wallet. Then, the original SOXWallet will add the GUI stuff to the new GUI-free wallet. This is a precondition for non-GUI exporters working with SOX (merchant applications like Teller).

Item, Contract, Instrument

These terms may sometimes mean the same thing:

• item is a SOX value identifier (byte array), literally, the field in the SOX payment or the SOX sub account that identifies value type.
• contract is a Ricardian contract, the hash of which is used as an item (SHA1). WebFunds assumes that all value, regardless of the wallet, is identified by a Ricardian contract. So, if we were to add a form of value that was distinct, say, smart card money, then we may have to write some contract wrappers to keep WebFunds happy with its assumption.
• instrument is a financially traded ricardian contract, as opposed to a contract that is not traded, or outside the trading context.

So, an issue like DigiGold might be an instrument, a contract, and an item, depending on the context.

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