1. What is the patent and who owns it?

In December of last year, the 2nd biggest bank institution in the United States, Bank of America (BoA) was awarded a cryptocurrency-related patent by U.S Patent and Trademark Office. The patent involves an exchange platform that will automatically convert someone’s digital assets into another type of digital asset. For example, you’d be able to change your Bitcoins into Litecoins (obviously also paying their respective network fees) in a matter of seconds by using their exchange.

2. How will the exchange work?

The patent is described as a three account system that involved the user’s account and 2 other “floating” accounts that serve as placeholders for the digital assets involved. The patent also describes that the accounts would fetch data from the outside to stay updated with cryptocurrency’s network fees and current market value.

3. Other patents from BoA?

On March 17, 2014, BoA Also filed to own another cryptocurrency patent. This patent involved asset wiring system that would allow its users to send and receive cryptocurrencies through their app. This patent allows its users to instantly wire digital assets all around the world and its users would be able to exchange their assets to a fiat currency (for example Dollars or Pesos).

In total, BoA has filed for 45 crypto-related patents, more than any other company.

Conclusions....

More recently, Bank of America has been having issues with its users depositing money into Coinbase. Recently, it was announced that BoA, along with other banks, has stopped their users from using credit cards in Coinbase. For a few days, BoA was also temporarily not allowing users to deposit any type of money into Coinbase. This raises the concern to why BoA may seem to be against crypto in the public eye, however, it has quietly gotten crypto-related patents. It also, again, raises the question of who gives banks the power to control what people spend their money on.

More info on the patents stated in this article:

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22Wire+Transfers+Using+Cryptocurrency%22&OS=%22Wire+Transfers+Using+Cryptocurrency%22&RS=%22Wire+Transfers+Using+Cryptocurrency%22

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=9,836,790.PN.&OS=pn/9,836,790&RS=PN/9,836,790