Share this article
Mastercard Seeks Patent for Instant Blockchain Payments Processing
New patent filings from Mastercard show how the credit card giant is looking at blockchain as a possible means for easing payment settlement times.
By Nikhilesh De
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:09 a.m. Published Nov 14, 2017, 3:00 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
New patent filings from Mastercard show how the credit card giant is looking at blockchain as a possible means for easing payment settlement times.
In a patent application released last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the company describes a blockchain-based database capable of instantaneously processing payments, guaranteeing that merchants don't need to wait days before receiving funds for their products.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Further, the filings indicate that the tech would help the firm keep an ongoing record of these transactions, verifying that a vendor was actually paid after a particular sale.
The data being stored would include the transaction amount, a guarantee of payment, confirmation of the payment and account profiles for the parties involved. These account profiles will also store each users's balance information, according to the application.
As the application details:
“There is a need for a technical solution where a payment transaction can be guaranteed in a manner that is readily verifiable by an acquiring financial institution and/or merchant, and where the guarantee can be used in conjunction with multiple types of payment instruments as well as multiple transaction types, including e-commerce transactions.”
Mastercard has repeatedly considered blockchain platforms to ease payments. Last month, the company announced it was opening up access to the blockchain tools it was developing in order to facilitate business-to-business transactions.
An earlier patent application released in September likewise focused on storing payment histories using a blockchain.
Disclosure: Mastercard is an investor in CoinDesk's parent company, Digital Currency Group.
Mastercard image via Atstock Productions / Shutterstock
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
Robinhood CEO says tokenized stocks could prevent another GameStop freeze
Vlad Tenev blamed the trading halt on its app in 2021 on bad infrastructure, a problem that he says tokenization would solve.
What to know:
- Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says the 2021 GameStop trading halt was caused by slow, collateral-intensive settlement infrastructure, rather than bad actors.
- Tenev argues that even the shift from T+2 to T+1 settlement is insufficient in a 24/7 news-and-trading environment, especially for trades executed on Fridays.
- He is pushing to move stocks onto blockchains for real-time settlement, expand Robinhood’s tokenized stock offerings and 24/7 DeFi-style trading, and urge Congress to pass the CLARITY Act to force the SEC to issue rules on tokenized equities.
Top Stories
