Bank of America seizes the technological frontier and will apply for 20 blockchain patents

Last December, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published 10 cryptocurrency patents filed by Bank of America. On Wednesday, a Bank of America spokesperson told CNBC that the bank is drafting another 20 blockchain-related patents that will be submitted to the USPTO later this month.

凯瑟琳•贝森特, chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, told CNBC last week during her visit to Davos:

“Blockchain is very interesting. In this regard, we will seek a balance. We will not be Neanderthals (primitive people), but in the current unclear blockchain market, we cannot easily launch commercial applications. But this technology is still very attractive to me as a technician.”

Regarding Bank of America’s application for a blockchain patent, Catherine said:

“We strive to stay at the forefront of global technological development and have applied for about 15 patents. Many people will be surprised that we have applied for patents related to blockchain or cryptocurrency. But in this world of intellectual property, we must reserve a place for ourselves, even though we don’t know what the future commercial applications will be.”

Many mainstream financial institutions around the world are actively deploying their own strategies in this field. Yesterday, Minouche Shafik, deputy governor of the Bank of England, delivered a speech titled "Establishing New Thinking and Improving Payment Systems" at a conference held by the Bank of England. In his speech, Shafik said that the Bank of England has established the "One Bank Research initiative" to study the impact of new digital or electronic funds and various new payment methods and financial media on the bank's existing settlement system. This includes Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

Shafiq said:

“It can reshape the mechanism of secure payment: now, settlements all occur on a ledger controlled by an authoritative institution (such as a central bank or clearing house), while distributed ledger technology can enable everyone in the DLT network to have a copy of the ledger through strong encryption and verification algorithms, and delegate the power to manage and update the ledger to a wider range of agents.”

Original article: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/28/bank-of-america-is-going-big-on-blockchain-plans-to-file-20-patents.html
Author: Arjun Kharpal&Julia Chatterley
Compiled by: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/bank-of-america-blockchain)