On 30. October, the Bank of America (BofA) has added another crypto-related Patent to its more than 50 registrations from the same area.

The second-largest Bank in the United States was a leader in the informal race to the Blockchain patents and has surpassed it players such as IBM and Alibaba. This does not mean, however, that the BofA is optimistic – the company has been criticized by crypto-currencies to the public and patents predominantly used, in order to appear in the Fintech Community.

Short story about the submitted cryptographic patents of the BofA

The Bank reported its first Blockchain-related Patent in March, 2014, published by the U.S. Patent and trademark office (USPTO) in September 2015. This authority awards the copyrights on inventions in the United States. This first Patent was entitled „money Transfers using crypto-currencies“ and did not contain the word „Blockchain“. It is a System in which funds between accounts back and forth, the use, the technology behind crypto-currencies described only.

That seemed to be the first cryptographic-related application for a large Bank for individuals in the United States and possibly the world. It is not surprising that the BofA was the first Bank of its kind, has filed for such a Patent. It was, in fact, was one of the first banks that initiated in 2013, the reporting about Bitcoin, as you published a report of the strategists David Woo, Ian Gordon and Vadim Iaralov. This was entitled „Bitcoin: A first assessment“, and it stated:

„Bitcoin could become a major means of payment for e-Commerce and a serious candidate in the competition against traditional money transfer providers. As a medium of exchange, Bitcoin has clear potential for growth.“

In September of 2015, has received the BofA also a crypto-related Patent. At the same time, the financial institution, R3 is joined. This is a consortium that consists of over 200 members, including banks, trade associations, and Fintech companies that are working on the development of Blockchain-based solutions.

Since the first Patent, called „Remittances using Cryptocurrencies“ has logged on to the BofA a lot of Blockchain-oriented patents. In December 2015, the USPTO published ten new patents, which were filed by the Bank in July 2014, and all of them had the word „cryptocurrency“ in the title. They related to various systems, such as, for example, „the Offline vault-the vault-System“, „Online safe Deposit System“.

In January 2016, the Bank revealed its intention to send 20 more Blockchain-oriented patent applications at the USPTO office. In an Interview with CNBC, said the head of the operations and technology Department at BofA, Catherine Bessant:

„As a technologist, I find the technology fascinating. We have tried to provide a top position to take. I think we have around 15 patents. Most people would be surprised that Bank of America has patents in the Blockchain or crypto – currency.“

Ultimately, the BofA secured the first place in an unofficial Patent race. Until June 2018, the Institution held about 45 Live patents (i.e., they are active and not yet expired). This is the highest number in comparison with all companies, from research by Marc Kaufman. He is a lawyer and co-Chairman of the Council for intellectual Blockchain-property in the digital U.S. chamber of Commerce. The US Bank, ahead of Tech players such as IBM and Alibaba, not to mention their direct competitors. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBoC) was among the banks with only eight patents.

„It is very important that we reserve a place for us“: The complicated relationship of the BofA to the crypto-technology

The Initiative of the BofA in the Blockchain-the area does not necessarily mean that the company will develop actual products. This does not mean that the company is in terms of all things relating to crypto, optimistic. Quite the contrary, the US Bank has significantly prefer to use a registered technology in their possession than they actually.

In 2016, said Catherine Bessant, compared to CNBC, it is very important to have the Blockchain-related patents, in order to reserve „a place for us, even before we know it, a commercial application might look like.“ To CB Insights, Future of Fintech event, which took place in June of this year in New York, commented:

„We have less than 50 patents in the area of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger. Although we have discovered no great options, but we want to be one step ahead, we want to be prepared.“

in Spite of the Initiative, which showed the 113-year-old Bank, has referred to Bitcoin as „disturbing,“ and your decision to forbid customers to buy crypto with credit cards, once again reaffirms. In addition, BofA has admitted in its annual report in February that crypto-currencies would pose a threat to your business model:

„customers could go to make transactions with other market participants, are engaged in this business or products in areas that we consider to be speculative, or risky, such as crypto-currencies.“

In August 2018 tweeted Michael Wuehler, that he is regarded as the inventor of the „8 of 50“ BofA-Blockchain-patents, these were from his point of view, but „meaningless“. Wuehler is a Blockchain-specialist at ConsenSys, and has previously worked over 11 years in the case of BofA, as his LinkedIn profile shows. Wuehler said that the patents were applied for, in order to attract the attention of the press and to the Bank in the Fintech area advanced appear.

In fact, a Fintech Patent does not necessarily mean that it will be used in the future. A Blockchain-Patent is, like any other Patent, in a number of exclusive Rights issued by an official authority – a sovereign state or an intergovernmental organization. This an inventor or authorized representative receives in exchange for that, he makes his invention available to the Public.

explains How Bloomberg, business Blockchain-patents „an essential component for companies that want to build the financial services industry remodel or profitable crypto-currency related companies“. In Essence, patents help companies to attract investors, to protect the property rights and monopoly profits of the otherto achieve with their inventions – and that could be at the BofA.

The latest patent applications of the BofA: from the storage of private key to the crypto currency exchange system

Here are some Details on the Initiative of the BofA in terms of the Blockchain, which were published by the USPTO in the past year. That should give a clearer picture of how the Bank plans to use the technology, at least hypothetically:

Private key

The latest issued crypto-related Patent, the BofA, the 30. October has been confirmed, refers to storage methods for private key.

Specifically, it is stated in the notification that the current ways to ensure that private keys are not manipulated, to be inadequate.

„While many devices are safety violations (i.e. can demonstrate a physical or non-physical Manipulation of the device and/or of the data), these devices offer no real-time response to such violations. This should prevent the abusive use of private cryptographic keys.

Therefore, is a safe way of storing a private cryptographic key necessary. This desired type of memory should reduce the risk of improper use of keys, because the keys are stored internally in a computing node. Because this is frequently or, in some cases, continuously over a public communications network such as the Internet, is accessible“.

Multiple digital signatures

On 18. In September, the USPTO published a BofA-Patent, in the application of multiple digital signatures in a distributed network.

The Patent proposes a System for managing data communication of Internet-enabled devices. In the document it is highlighted that „the invention allows an automated determination of which devices and with which third-party companies to communicate. In some application, the type of data that will be transmitted to these third-party companies, determined to be of the forms“.

the BofA proposed System is aimed at devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment, and describes how each of the devices communicate within the network, continuous data. The System allows the user to „select which data will be transferred to which third-party. He can prohibit data (i.e., block) or to restrict access to“.

External validation

In July, the USPTO issued a Patent to the Bank on a Blockchain-based System for external validation of data.

the BofA proposes to use the Blockchain to track resources information, and confirmation of resource transfers. As a reason was specified, it is „currently not necessary to give a more specific reference to the financial Situation of a user, by an external validation of data in a process data network“.

The Patent describes how the System records information about the Blockchain. This is done on the Basis of „aggregated information associated with the previous resource transfers executed by a Person or organization“. The information would then be about the Blockchain with each new transaction activity is updated.

data storage

In April, was published, a patent application by the Bank for a Blockchain-based storage system with automated data authentication. The document was originally submitted in October 2016.

In the document, the BofA-the author describes a Blockchain-powered System for the authentication of data. Thus, these data should also be made to service providers in a secure manner accessible. The Patent deals with the Problem of data transfer and tracking. In the document it is said that this can be solved with the help of cryptographic keys in a private Blockchain:

„The forms of application of the invention to use a private Blockchain to store different types of data sets that are to be transmitted to the service provider. In this way, the natural or legal Person can store all of the records for the respective service provider to be relevant, safe in the Blockchain – The service providers can then be used to secure access to these records be granted, so that the service provider can only access the specific records for which you have permission. A healthcare provider can access, for example, and then only to the health records in the Blockchain.“

The author also describes the disadvantages of the conventional methods for the sharing and storage of records, such as E-Mail attachments. He claims that these are prone to manipulation, as „a built-in mechanism for authentication of records“ is missing. A Blockchain-based System, in turn, would provide an efficient, safe and reliable way to store records and to grant only authorized parties have access, the Patent finally.

crypto-currency exchange system

In December 2017, has received the BofA granted a Patent that describes a digital currency exchange system. According to the document, the System enables the automatic conversion of a digital currency into another. The exchange rate will be determined on the basis of external data feeds.

As of the patent application, would collect the proposed System, data from external sources of information about the current virtual currency exchange rates and from these data, a optimum rate can be calculated. Specifically, it is stated in the application:

„companies could daily handle a large number of financial transactions. In the course of technological progress, financial transactions with crypto-currencies become increasingly common. For some companies, it may be desirable to be able to currencies and crypto-currencies.“