The Bank of America applied for another patent related to the blockchain, the document published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A patent entitled “Systems and devices for the simplified Remote Storage of secret encryption keys used for authentication” was filed on September 16, 2018. The following document describes the mechanism for storing data with cryptographic keys.
In the patent application, Bank of America notes that the existing mechanisms for storing secret keys are insufficient and unsafe because they are stored locally.
The bank also notes that since most computers are always connected to the Internet, their “embedded keys of secret cryptography are constantly prone to be illegally used by a person who wants to usurp the identity of the user.”
According to the author, the proposed storage device will be completely isolated from the system that performs the authentication. Moreover, if any form of intrusion is detected, it will automatically destroy its memory and, in addition, all stored secret keys. The processor can also be paired with multiple sensors to identify physical interventions, such as changes in acceleration, temperature, and shock. Brute force attacks are also covered when a device can theoretically detect forced hardware login attempts.
It is noteworthy that the Bank of America has the largest number of patents associated with technology blockchain. In June 2018, Fortune’s business publication found that an American company was headed by a so-called blockchain race, where approximately 50 live patents were registered. Even such technology giants as IBM, Mastercard and Intel were unable to defeat the Bank of America in this respect.
This year, the American bank filed applications for numerous patents; However, former senior vice president Michael Weller stated that most patents have no practical purpose and represent nothing but a marketing ploy. Interestingly, Wuehler is listed as the “inventor” of the 8 blockchain patents filed by Bank of America. He has been responsible for more than 10 percent of the company’s patents during his Twitter postings earlier today. After working with BoA for 11 years, he became one of the founders of the blockchain company Consensys.
Although most of the patents awarded by Bank of America have not yet been given a commercial product, the company wants to get ahead of the curve that the community is moving towards. Speaking at the CB Insights Future of Fintech Conference in June 2018, the chief technical officer of Bank of America said:
“We have more than 50 patents in the blockchain/distributed database. Although we have not found large-scale opportunities, we want to be ahead, we want to be ready. ”
However, on a global scale, the Chinese electronic platform Alibaba has filed the most patents to date. To date, the company has registered about 100 patents, and its founder, Jack Ma, relies on technology. In early 2018, he criticized the speculative nature of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and said that blockchain “should be used to address issues of privacy, security and data sustainability.”
