Mastercard filed blockchain patent

Payment behemoth Mastercard has filed a patent for anonymous payments on the blockchain. The title of the document is ‘Method and System for Anonymization of Electronic Transactions Via Blockchain’. It describes a method for anonymous transactions via a blockchain, while it generates a digital signature using a private key. Data from this transaction is then send to another node on the same network.

The patent was filed by Mastercard on December 6th. The company announced in October it would open up access to its blockchain payment API. This is called Mastercard Developers.

Obviously Mastercard isn’t the only fintech company trying to claim patents in the realm of blockchain technology. Companies like Xerox, Bank of America and JP Morgan have been filing patents left and right.

Even though embracing the technology by these companies is a good thing for the cryptocurrency space, it’s likely these products don’t follow the same work ethos as many blockchain projects have. It’s not likely Mastercard will be powering its network with miners or masternodes, but they’ll be using a more closed and centralized system instead.

Originally published at NEDEROB.