U.S. retail giant Walmart has been awarded a patent for a system that would store medical records on a blockchain from a wearable device, according to a patent filing published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The system, according to the document, will allow medical professionals to retrieve medical data from a patient that is unable to communicate. The patient’s medical records will theoretically be stored on a blockchain, accessible by a device worn by the patient that first responders could access with an RFID scanner. The patent further explains the principles of the system's operation: “... receiving, by …

U.S. crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have won a patent for a system to provide crypto-based exchange-traded products (ETPs), according to a patent filing published by the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) June 19. The new patent represents systems, methods and program products for using ETPs that hold “digital assets” and “other products and/or services related to ETPs holding digital assets,” such as Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Litecoin (LTC). Filed on Nov. 27, 2017 by Winklevoss IP, the patent includes both brothers as the inventors, as well as Evan Louis Greebel, …

U.S. retail giant Walmart has won a patent for the development of an electrical grid that will be powered by Bitcoin (BTC) or other digital currency, according to a patent application published June 14 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The system is designed to help companies better manage energy consumption and regulate demand on an electrical grid using a publicly distributed transactions ledger. Walmart initially filed the patent in December 2017. The patent says that both households and large organizations can use a blockchain-based network of energy-consuming devices. Subsequently, they can assign each device a specific amount …

Financial services provider Mastercard has filed a patent for a blockchain system to provide faster and more secure payments on their cards, according to US Patent and Trademark Office USPTO patent filing released June 7. The patent application dubbed “Method And System For Payment Card Verification Via Blockchain” describes a public blockchain-assisted conveyance and retrieval of payment processes to verify and secure users’ information. In the document, Mastercard noted the vulnerability of existing means of “wireless transmission of payment credentials,” claiming that they can be “subject to intercept.” By implementing a blockchain, the company aims to enable a secure way …

Walmart has filed a patent for a blockchain-based marketplace for reselling purchased products, according to a US Patent and Trademark Office USPTO patent filing from May 17. The application describes a service that would record a customer’s purchases in a blockchain ledger, thus allowing the customer to resell the items on a sales platform using the record of purchase. The patent notes that since customers don’t always plan to use an item for its lifespan, and are generally “left to their own devices to arrange for a subsequent resale,” the architecture described in the patent can provide “additional support to …

Mastercard has filed a patent for a system to speed up the activation of new nodes in a blockchain, in an application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) April 26. The application, which was first filed on October 24, 2016, outlines that the current difficulty facing new nodes – a computer connected to the blockchain network that stores a copy of the blockchain – is that they are required to individually verify a massive amount of data in order to activate. The patent states that new nodes must verify “thousands, millions, or even billions of transaction records …

Tech giant IBM has filed a patent for an Internet of Things (IOT)-focused Blockchain configuration which would tailor the proof-of-work (PoW) protocol in order to address potential security issues in IoT networks, in an application published April 26. The patent proposes: “A method, comprising: determining a proof-of-work via an [IOT compatible] device; using a predefined set of nonce values when determining the proof-of-work; storing the proof-of-work on a blockchain; and broadcasting the proof-of-work as a broadcast message.” Nonces are used in PoW systems to vary the input to a cryptographic hash function so as to obtain a hash that fulfills …

On April 12, the US Patent and Trademark Office published Bank of America’s application for a patent on a Blockchain-based storage system with automated data authentication. In the document, which was originally filed in October 2016, the author describes a Blockchain-based system for authenticating data and providing secured access of said data to service providers. The patent addresses the problem of data transferring and tracking, which it says can be resolved by means of cryptographic keys in a private Blockchain: “Embodiments of the invention utilize a private Blockchain to store various types of records to be conveyed to the service …

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published the details of the three patent applications filed by Bank of America for distributed ledger technology (DLT) or Blockchain technology. Based on the document, the patents were filed in February 2016, and the bank does not seem to be stopping at that as it plans to go big on Blockhain with 20 patents pending since 2016 making it appear like it’s trying to monopolize the industry in the long run. Details of the patent applications The first patent is titled “System for Tracking and Validation of an Entity in a Process Data …

On October 15, 2015, The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published 21 Inc.’s (21) patent application 20150294308 for “Digital Mining Circuitry.” Matthew Pauker, then CEO (now Chairman) alongside his co-founders are listed as the inventors. The application reveals how mining circuitry in various devices can be used to profit share or share in bitcoin (or other cryptocurrency) rewards with a number of participants in the scheme. Earlier this year, 21, a company whose name is homage to the maximum number of bitcoins to be mined (21 million), announced that it raised a record US$116 million in venture funding. …