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To: 24601 who wrote (3361)	7/24/1998 11:07:00 AM
From: Emmo	Respond to of 11417

Thursday, July 23, 1998, 2:15 p.m. ET. Cost, Complexity Threaten SET's Success By JOHN EVAN FROOK It looks like suppliers of Internet payment software and services are just about giving up on the SET payment technology and falling back on old, reliable SSL. That was what analysts were saying this week in the wake of several moves from Internet payment leaders. CyberCash Inc. purchased First Virtual Corp.'s wallet-based accounts for an undisclosed sum and said it plans to convert those customers to the simpler Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption software. Meanwhile, SSL stalwart PaymentNet said it will target enterprises with batch-oriented payment systems that make no accommodation for consumer wallets based on the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) certificate-based protocol. The two disclosures follow IBM's move last week to add an SSL module within its Net.Commerce platform, which many observers deemed a hedge against slow SET adoption in the United States. Executives at these vendors were candid about what is already widely documented: SET could take far longer to take hold than initially expected. And, for that matter, it may never catch on. "It is possible for us to do double-certificate processing under SET, but we don't believe there's enough market weight to support it," said PaymentNet CEO Bruce Hendricks. "We are listening to the market and the market wants SSL today," said Maureen Loftus, CyberCash's senior vice president for marketing and strategy. A new CyberCash wallet scheduled to be released within 30 days will offer both SSL and SET support, but will likely be tapped primarily for its SSL qualifications, Loftus added. The accounts First Virtual sold to CyberCash will migrate to SSL solutions initially, Loftus confirmed. Championed by credit-card associations MasterCard and Visa, SET was once regarded as the Holy Grail for secure commerce on the Internet, capable of assuaging customer fear over buying on the Internet by integrating digital certificates to verify the identity of all parties in a payment transfer. But the expense and complexity of the technology is holding it back, said analyst Vernon Keenan at consulting firm Keenan Vision Inc. "I see wallet-based transactions to be a non-starter because installing them on the user side often requires support," Keenan said.