FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the initiation of transactions that bypass merchant systems, specifically the use of a blockchain to bypass the conveyance of payment credentials to a merchant system.

BACKGROUND

Consumers that engage in electronic payment transactions are often willing to sacrifice security for the sake of convenience. For instance, many consumers that use merchant websites or application programs for conducting electronic payment transactions with a merchant are willing to provide their payment credentials to the merchant for storage thereby for use in future transactions. This action can provide the consumer with an opportunity later on to select use of their saved payment credentials, negating the need to re-enter all of the information, saving the consumer time and effort. In addition, this can serve as a protection against man-in-the-middle attacks where the data may be intercepted as it is submitted to the merchant.

However, such methods are only as effective as the storage mechanism used by the merchant to store the payment credentials they have been provided. With the increase in the number of electronic payment transactions that are processed there has been a significant rise in the number of cyber-attacks on merchant systems to access stored payment credentials. In some cases, millions of payment credentials have been stolen at once on more than one occasion. As a result, some consumers have become wary in having merchants store their payment credentials. However, as noted above, the entry of payment credentials for use every transaction may leave the credentials open to being compromised during their transmission. Unfortunately, there is no system available that can enable a consumer to bypass a merchant system when providing their payment credentials for funding an electronic payment transaction.

Thus, there is a need for a technological solution whereby an electronic payment transaction may be initiated that is funded using payment credentials that are not provided to the merchant involved in the payment transaction.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a description of systems and methods for transaction initiation with a bypass of merchant systems. A blockchain is used to store data associated with a transaction that is approved for initiation by a consumer. The merchant submits data that identifies the approval that is stored in the blockchain in lieu of a traditional payment transaction. A processing server receives the data, verifies that it corresponds to the approved transaction based on what is stored in the blockchain, and initiates the corresponding payment transaction using payment credentials previously provided by the consumer. Thus, a payment transaction is initiated without the merchant ever receiving the payment credentials, preventing any dangers of theft or man-in-the-middle attacks involving the merchant and with only minor modifications to merchant systems, with significant technical advantage over prior systems.

A method for transaction initiation with a bypass of merchant systems includes: storing, in a memory of a processing server, at least a consumer public key of a cryptographic key pair and a blockchain, wherein the blockchain is comprised of a plurality of blocks, each block being comprised of at least a block header and one or more data values, where each block header includes at least a block timestamp and each of the one or more data values includes a unique transaction identifier; receiving, by a receiving device of the processing server, a data message originating from a merchant system, wherein the data message includes at least a specific transaction identifier, a transaction timestamp, and transaction data; executing, by a querying module of the processing server, a query on the memory to identify a specific data value included in a specific block of the plurality of blocks comprising the blockchain where the included unique transaction identifier corresponds to the specific transaction identifier; verifying, by a verification module of the processing server, that the block timestamp included in the block header included in the specific block is within a predetermined period of time of the transaction timestamp; executing, by the querying module of the processing server, a query to identify payment credentials associated with a user transaction account corresponding to the specific data value, wherein the payment credentials are identified following successful verification; and initiating, by a transaction processing module of the processing server, a payment transaction between the merchant system and the transaction account using at least the identified payment credentials and transaction data.

A system for transaction initiation with a bypass of merchant systems includes: a transaction processing module of a processing server; a memory of the processing server configured to store at least a consumer public key of a cryptographic key pair and a blockchain, wherein the blockchain is comprised of a plurality of blocks, each block being comprised of at least a block header and one or more data values, where each block header includes at least a block timestamp and each of the one or more data values includes a unique transaction identifier; a receiving device of the processing server configured to receive a data message originating from a merchant system, wherein the data message includes at least a specific transaction identifier, a transaction timestamp, and transaction data; a querying module of the processing server configured to execute a query on the memory to identify a specific data value included in a specific block of the plurality of blocks comprising the blockchain where the included unique transaction identifier corresponds to the specific transaction identifier; and a verification module of the processing server configured to verify that the block timestamp included in the block header included in the specific block is within a predetermined period of time of the transaction timestamp, wherein the querying module of the processing server is further configured to execute a query to identify payment credentials associated with a user transaction account corresponding to the specific data value, wherein the payment credentials are identified following successful verification, and the transaction processing module of the processing server is configured to initiate a payment transaction between the merchant system and the transaction account using at least the identified payment credentials and transaction data.

