Bank of America Files Three New Blockchain Patents

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Bank of America has filed three new blockchain-related patents geared towards data authentication and identity

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Bank of America has filed three new blockchain-related patents geared towards data authentication and identity verification. The new patents are the latest in a growing number of blockchain patents filed by the financial services giant.

Creating Innovation With Blockchain

Financial services company Bank of America has submitted three new blockchain patents that focus primarily on authenticating information as well as those who handle it.

According to the official website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO), one of the patents focuses on the conversion of non-secure “instruments” through a validation process into “transaction confirmation outputs”.  The document explains:

The blockchain recordation component receives a plurality of transaction records for each of a plurality of transactions (…), and when the transaction amount is available, it cryptographically records the transaction in a blockchain comprising a plurality of hashes of transaction records

Essentially the patent would allow Bank of America to authenticate user and transaction information through a blockchain system.

The second patent utilizes a distributed ledger system that monitors and verifies user identities on a network. In the patent documents, it is described as following:

[the system] integrates stored information, real time information and real-time information/data/image(s) from an object/array of objects (Internet of Things (IoT))

The last patent is centered around a system that monitors changes in user history at a specific timeline and creates a “map” of the user and his history. The patents suggest that Bank of America is going to heavily invest in Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Bank Of America and Blockchain Technology

This isn’t the first time that the famous finance corporation has shown its intention to innovate with blockchain technology. According to an article by CNBC on January 28, 2016, Bank of America decided to get ahead in the innovation ‘game’ and filed 15 different blockchain-related patents.

It is worth noting that the majority of these innovative patents are focused on user and transaction verification through blockchain technology, which could greatly reduce transactions costs and drastically cut transaction times for customers.

Catherine Bessant, the chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, explained the company’s interest in blockchain technology:

Blockchain’s very intriguing and for us it’s a balance between not wanting to be Neanderthal but not wanting to put something out in a commercial application where the commercial application is still very unclear as a technologist, the technology is fascinating. […] And we have tried to stay on the forefront, I think we have somewhere around 15 patents, most people would be surprised at Bank of America with patents in the blockchain or cryptocurrency space. (It’s) very important in the intellectual property world to reserve our spot even before we know what the commercial application might be.

Through its rapid movements, Bank Of America is clearly trying to win the innovation race with the help of blockchain technology. We are looking forward to seeing how other financial institutions will respond to this.

What are your thoughts on these patents? Do you think that Bank of America will be able to win the innovation race? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Pexels, Reuters/Shannon Stapleton, iStockPhoto

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