QR Code-enabled Digital Receipt System for Secure and Paperless Financial Transactions (QR-CeRST)

多年来，由于气候变化的存在威胁，森林砍伐，植树造林以及积极减少纸张使用的必要性在循环经济讨论中占据了突出地位。然而，随着全球金融交易的增长，纸质购物收据的数量也在不断增加，这些收据可作为购买交易、保修索赔和退货、退税、个人支出跟踪等的证明。报告显示，大约90%的纸质收据最终都被丢弃，因为它们不便于存储和维护。尽管如此，许多零售商仍然自动打印收据，尽管顾客不想要它们。据估计，全球每年生产3000亿张收据，消耗2500万棵树，180亿升水和2200万桶石油。在英国，每年必须砍伐大约20万棵树才能生产112亿张收据（ParcelHero，2021）。由于这些收据大多涂有有毒化学物质（如双酚A和双酚S），这些化学物质与健康风险有关（例如，2型糖尿病、前列腺癌），它们主要是不可回收的。因此，很大一部分纸质收据最终大多被填埋，填埋时每年向大气中排放约28，000吨二氧化碳当量（CarbonTrust，2021）。在生物多样性减少和气候变化加速的时代，纸质收据似乎是一种浪费的解决方案。因此，有证据表明，数字化收据是遏制和潜在扭转气候变化破坏性影响的重要一步。然而，目前有三个主要障碍阻碍了数字收据的广泛采用。首先，由于隐私和身份盗窃问题，客户不同意在柜台上共享个人数据。其次，虽然只有少数零售商以短信和电子邮件的形式发送数字收据，但客户报告说，在搜索长长的消息历史记录或电子邮件收件箱以查找收据时感到非常不适。第三，目前没有任何鼓励客户选择数码收据的措施，基于此，本方案旨在开发首个“QR码数码收据系统，实现安全和无纸化金融交易”，消除纸质收据对环境的影响，最大限度地降低零售企业的交易成本，并鼓励客户选择数码收据。

Over the years, due to the existential threats of climate change, deforestation, afforestation, and the need to actively reduce paper usage have figured prominently within circular economy discussions. However, with financial transactions being on the rise all over the world, so is the proliferation of purchase paper receipts -- which serves as proof of purchase for exchange, warranty claims and returns, tax rebates, personal expense tracking etc. Reports suggests that approximately 90 percent of paper receipts end up in the bin because they are mainly inconvenient to store and maintain. Nevertheless, many retailers still auto-print receipts despite customers not wanting them.Globally, it is estimated that 300 billion receipts of paper are produced annually, consuming 25 million trees, 18 billion litres of water and 22 million barrels of oil. In the UK, around 200,000 trees must be felled to produce the 11.2 billion paper till receipts printed each year (ParcelHero, 2021). Because most of these receipts are coated with toxic chemicals (such as bisphenol A and bisphenol S), which have been associated with health risks (e.g., type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer), they are predominantly non-recyclable. As a result, a significant portion of paper till receipts mostly end up as landfills, which when landfilled, emits around 28,000 tonnes of CO2e into the atmosphere per year (CarbonTrust, 2021). At a time when biodiversity is decreasing and climate change is accelerating, paper receipts appears to be a profligate solution.Hence, evidence suggests that digitising receipts represents a significant step in curbing and potentially reversing the devastating effects of climate change. However, three main barriers currently militate against the wide adoption of digital receipts. Firstly, customers are at odds with the sharing of personal data over the counter due to privacy and identity theft concerns. Secondly, although only a handful of retailers send digital receipts in the form of SMS texts and emails, customers report a huge discomfort in searching long lists of message history or email inboxes to find receipts. Thirdly, there are currently no incentives for customers who opt for digital receipts.It is on this premise that this solution aims to develop a first of a kind "QR-Code-Enabled Digital Receipt System for Secure and Paperless Financial Transactions" that eradicates paper receipts environmental impact, minimises the cost of transaction for retail establishments and incentivises customers that opt for digital receipts.