1. A system for affecting a transfer of funds over a public network, comprising: an acquirer; a gateway connected to said public network, said gateway comprising a plurality of individual accounts; at least one individual account of said plurality of individual accounts comprising means for aggregating a first all or a portion of funds in said plurality of individual accounts until said aggregated funds are greater than or equal to a minimum acceptable transaction amount for said acquirer; means within said gateway for supporting a plurality of authenticated transactions between holders of said plurality of individual accounts; means within said gateway for transferring the first all or a portion of said aggregated funds between the individual account of said plurality of individual accounts and said acquirer; means at said acquirer for defining said minimum acceptable transaction amount for said acquirer; a first node on said public network, which first node purchases a second all or a portion of funds in said plurality of individual accounts from said gateway and which transfers all or a portion of said purchased funds; a second node on said public network which receives at least all or a portion of said purchased funds from said first node; means at said first node for transferring all or a portion of said purchased funds via said gateway; means at said second node for transferring said received all or a portion of said purchased funds via said gateway; at least one customer node; and at least one merchant node comprising means for effecting at least one purchase transaction with said customer node; means at said merchant node for transferring a plurality of purchase transactions for aggregation into an electronic money account at said gateway; and an electronic payment protocol for implementing said transactions as secure courier messages.