Mastercard Patents Blockchain-Based Payment Verification

Mastercard has submitted a patent application to the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) for a system that is authenticating cards at the point of sale (POS) using blockchain technology. The company has always been outspoken about numerous flaws of traditional payment services and security platforms stating those are prone to breaches, error, and manipulation. They believe their clients perceive blockchain-based currencies as a confidential and secure alternative.

Although the submitted title of the filling is “Method and System For Instantaneous Payment Using Recorded Guarantees” and the title doesn’t clearly say “blockchain”, it is obvious that Mastercard has developed its own ledger for verification of payment credentials by retrieving bank card user information. The 95 mentions of the word “blockchain” in the patent document are good proof of that. It seems that in this solution machine-readable code is displayed to the point of sale device. Using a system like this prevents card-skimming as the reading of such a code can be easily controlled by the user. One-way blockchain functions enable complete safety for payment processing.

Statistically, the payments industry is losing $2 billion annually due to hijacked credit card information or payments, and while Mastercard’s blockchain requires “minimal consumer participation” in the process, the system is described to effectively prevent the interception of wireless transmitted credentials. Mastercard ensures secure and instant transaction by recording the payment credentials on a blockchain and automatically issuing two keys – the public and private key.

The company has previously filed patent applications for multiple blockchain-based solutions. One already approved patent is titled “Method and System for Travel Itinerary Bidding via Blockchain”. It enables travel agents to have equal opportunity to offer their services to travelers by providing detailed information about their itinerary which is being written in a block, thus, being distributed across the blockchain. Mastercard is one of the leading finance companies that largely invests in the development of blockchain technology and its application because innovations mold economies and rebuild markets.

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