Bank of America Scores Crypto Patent

Bank of America (NYSE:MER-K), the leader in blockchain-related patents in the US, has been awarded yet another patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

In the patent filing revealed on Tuesday (November 13), the Bank of America’s latest patent is for a cryptocurrency storage platform associated with enterprise accounts.

Originally submitted to the USPTO in June 2014, the patent states the platform is geared generally towards cryptocurrency deposits and an aggregation cryptocurrency system.

The bank claims the platform will safely store a customer’s cryptocurrency assets and says that enterprises likely handle a “large number” of financial-related transactions daily.

“As technology advances, financial transactions involving cryptocurrency have become more common,” the filing reads. “For some enterprises, it may be desirable to aggregate cryptocurrency deposited by customers in an enterprise account.”

Bank of America’s platform will require systems to have a memory and processor. The filing goes on to say that the processor may be linked to receive automatic requests to store a private key connected to a cryptocurrency, which will allow for authorized cryptocurrency transactions with a specified quantity.

Those transactions will be deposited into a vault connected to a network and essentially will know the total number of crypto assets to deposit.

“The processor may also, in response to determining the total quantity of cryptocurrency deposited into the vault exceeds a threshold, facilitate the disconnection of the vault from the network,” the document reads.

Interestingly enough, Bank of America filed its Form 10-K report for its fiscal year 2017 earlier this year with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and made a claim that digital currencies pose a threat to financial institutions.

“Emerging technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, could limit our ability to track the movement of funds,” the document reads.

The bank also claimed that it faces “significant and increasing competition in the financial services industry,” and deemed cryptocurrencies an area it deems risky or speculative.

“Increased competition may negatively affect our earnings by creating pressure to lower prices or credit standards on our products and services requiring additional investment to improve the quality and delivery of our technology and/or reducing our market share, or affecting the willingness of our clients to do business with us,” the bank said.

Still—that hasn’t stopped the bank from dipping its toes in the cryptocurrency and blockchain spaces with its various related patents. Most recent data compiled by PatentVue by Envision IP shows that the Bank of America leads the pack with a staggering 43 blockchain patents, followed by IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) with 27 each.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.