Scrip

Abstract: A system and method for performing and settling an electronic scrip transaction between a merchant and a member includes a database storing accounts for one or more participating merchants, scrip distributors, sponsoring organizations, and members. The system also includes merchant terminals, scrip distributor terminals, sponsoring organization terminals, and a system manager terminal, which are interconnected to one another, as well as to the database, over a network, and a member scrip card, such as a magnetic stripe card or a smart card. Transaction information, including the transaction amount, is entered at a merchant terminal and sent over the network to a scrip distributor terminal or system manager terminal, and the member's account is automatically debited by the transaction amount. Additionally, merchant loyalty point credit or tuition credit can be awarded and stored for the member in connection with the transaction amount. The merchant's account is automatically credited with a merchant portion of the transaction amount, and the accounts of one or both of the scrip distributor and the sponsoring organization are credited with respective portions of the balance according to percentages on a look-up table also stored in the database.

Abstract: An electronic commerce system includes a broker computer system having a database of scrip representing a form of currency, a vendor computer system having a database containing products which may be exchanged for the scrip, a consumer computer system with which a user may initiate transactions with the scrip, and an agent computer system to which the consumer can delegate rights to perform actions with the scrip. To delegate actions on scrip, the delegator provides the delegatee with a delegation having a list of the delegated actions. In addition, the delegator determines a delegation scrip secret (DSS) and a delegation pass phrase (DPP) and securely passes these to the delegatee. The delegatee uses the DSS to authenticate itself to servers accepting the scrip and uses the DPP to encrypt the DSS while the scrip is stored by the delegatee. To perform an action with delegated scrip, the delegatee sends a request for the action to a server. The request includes the action, the scrip, the delegation, and a request stamp (RS) calculated using the DSS. The server validates the request by recalculating the RS. When server provides the delegatee with new scrip having multiple delegations, the server encrypts the new DSS"s for each delegation. The delegatee uses the old DSS"s to decrypt the DSS"s for the new scrip. The delegatee stores the encrypted DSS for delegations for which the delegatee does not know the DSS.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for transferring credits from one gaming device to another via the use of coded scrip is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of accepting a cash-out command in the gaming device, scanning a magnetically manifested code uniquely identifying a scrip stored in the gaming device, transmitting a cash-out message comprising the code to a remote processor having access to a database configured to store and retrieve codes from a plurality of gaming devices, receiving a scrip dispense message from the remote processor, and dispensing the scrip. The apparatus comprises a scrip storage unit, a scrip dispensing unit having a scrip transducer for reading and recording a magnetically manifested code on a scrip retrieved from the scrip storage unit, and a processor, communicatively coupled to the scrip transducer and a remote computer having access to a database for storing and retrieving code information from the plurality of gaming devices.

Abstract: Firms in the United Kingdom that pay scrip (i.e., in stock) dividends do not appear to be following optimal dividend policies. Scrip dividends are not driven by tax considerations or cash shortages. The payment of scrip dividends exacerbates the agency costs of free cash flow.