21 companies apply for patents for Bitcoin mining circuits

Bitcoin startup 21 Inc has applied for a patent for a bitcoin mining circuit, according to an application published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) earlier this month.

Specifically, 21 is seeking to patent a “digital currency mining circuit having adaptive difficulty comparison capability.”

The application was originally filed on May 6, 2015, with 21st Century co-founders Nigel Drego, Veerbhan Kheterpal and Daniel Firu named as inventors. It is reported that this is the second patent application of 21st Century, as the company filed a similar patent application in October 2014.

Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process in which entities compete to create the next block of valid transactions. Currently, miners who successfully mine a block will receive a reward of 12.5 BTC (about $9,200).

According to the patent application:

“The difficulty of cryptographic puzzles has necessitated the design of specialized circuits specifically designed for Bitcoin mining. Such specialized circuits can be expensive to design, purchase, and operate. Therefore, it is desirable to provide improved systems and methods for performing cryptographic operations and verification processes.”

This is notable because 21 has worked with Intel Corp. to develop a bitcoin miner using chips from the Santa Clara-based technology company, details of which were disclosed in documents obtained by CoinDesk last year.

It is reported that 21 has begun to develop relevant strategies around its Bitcoin computer released in September 2015, which aims to create a foundation for machine-to-machine payments using digital currency. To date, the startup has raised more than $100 million in venture capital, and in May this year, 21 also launched a software suite that allows other devices to use their system.

In recent weeks, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published a number of bitcoin and blockchain patents, with recipients ranging from startups Blockstream and Digital Asset Holdings (DAH) to established companies such as AT&T and Nasdaq.

21 did not respond to a request for comment.