Distributed digital commerce

Electronic commerce covers trading activities that are supported by information and communication technologies. Digital commerce defines a particular subset of electronic commerce. There are only digital products or digital services involved and every auxiliary used for trading is digital, either. Distributed digital commerce in particular is an approach to relocate digital commerce from client-server structures towards decentralized architectures. This paper targets on distributed digital commerce. It develops a reference model to describe processes involved in digital trading. Furthermore, they are mapped onto decentralized systems and their characteristics. Digital marketplaces are central instances coordinating digital commerce. They are both examined and harmonized with the process model. In particular, characteristics of distributed digital marketplaces are drawn up for they are essentially in the decentralized approach. Finally, the concept of digital money is considered. It can be used for payment without involving a server-based bank and therefore supports the decentralized idea.