Why has Bank of America filed patents for blockchain-related patents so rigorously?
September 6, 2018

“As a payment system, cryptocurrency is troubling. So we have decided to stop customers from buying cryptocurrency with our credit cards.”
Bank of America issued this negative comment about cryptocurrency in May and banned the use of its credit card to purchase digital currencies later.
At the same time, Bank of America is the largest holder of cryptocurrency related patents of all companies. It had filed nearly 50, even beating out the tech giant IBM. The company’s stance seems contradictory, so we will look what the company is aiming at.
The patents filed by Bank of America
Bank of America, the US’s second largest bank, filed a patent for a blockchain-based crypto storage system, according to the announcement on August 23 by the US Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO).
The patent, entitled “BlockChain Encryption Tag” filed on April 18, can be described as an encrypted tag, which is called a “creator tag,” is generated when data is linked to a block and the tag is imbedded in the first block.
With this encrypted creator tag, a user can give a service provider an access permission only for the specific record that needs to be accessed.
With such a tag, for example, it would become possible to create a platform environment in which only healthcare professionals could have access to medical data.
Furthermore, BoA has filed a patent for a blockchain-based system allowing the external validation of data in which a central entity managing the blockchain can track a user’s resource movements. The filing was reported on July 17, 2018. Utilizing the patented technology, the bank would be able to monitor and intervene in users’ transactions within the private chain owned by Bank of America. This could also be a measure for expediting transactions and for deterring crimes.
Besides these cases, the bank filed an additional patent related to custody service for digital assets as reported in the previous column as well as a patent entitled “System for managing security and access to resource sub-components”.
What is the aim of BoA?
Most of the patent applications by Bank of America are related to private chain technology and security issues. They are not technically novel, so some observers are skeptical about patent approvals.
Considering these examples, it seems that the bank is aiming at differentiating itself from competitors by using privatechain, not earning profit with patents. Though the bank is active in filing patents, its purpose may not be to obtain patents but to demonstrate that it is taking an active approach to attract more attention from the market.
If Bank of America can gain customer trust by tackling security issues, while taking critical a attitude to cryptocurrencies, there is no doubt that the company will stand out in the industry.
We have to continue to pay attention to Bank of America as it takes this proactive approach to blockchain.
