Ayling is unconcerned about competition from the marketplace -- in particular from Sun Microsystems. He believes that merchants will be drawn to Microsoft's authentication system over that of its competitors, and that Sun will be concerned about the presence of JPassport in the market.
"I think Sun would maybe wish JPassport wasn't around," said Ayling. "You hear these reports of Sun saying they are creating an authentication platform, just like Passport that Java people can use but I think from a merchant point of view, they don't really care so much which platform it is," he said.
"The great thing that Microsoft brings to this party are 200 million holders of Passport. Sun can never do that. Sun have got great links with the developer community, while Microsoft has the contacts with the general public," he added.
Sun declined to comment.
Ayling disputes claims that other companies have developed, or are in the process of developing, products similar to JPassport.
"This is a world-first, because we are letting users write in Java and run it on a Solaris machine," he said. "Every single other one we have seen, they are hacks. They are trying to get bits of technology and trying to pull it together. We have created a proper Java solution for Passport where users can install, write and run Passport in Java.".
The project has officially been launched, and Microsoft and BuyItOnline are currently working together to promote the idea in the marketplace.
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