According to a source, a patent application has been uncovered in which Bank of America is reported of eyeing shared network of ATMs backed by blockchain technology. As per the filing, published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on 25th Dec 2018, a cash-handling system will use the digital ledger technology to speed up the transaction rate or facilitate different types of transaction apart from the ATM transactions such as cash deposits, withdrawals, or any gift registry transactions.
The documents further shed light on the possibility of blockchain in supporting similar devices while handling a comparatively larger amount of transaction while lowering its physical cash transportation requirement.
As of now, most of the ATMs are connected to their respective financial institutions. The operating system of the financial institutions with ATMs support varied stakeholders that have the access to a single software system.
According to the document, Bank of America is looking to effectively implement ‘ATM as a Service’ with the focus to allow customers without any connection with any participating financial institutions to transact money across a single ATM network or point-to-point video communication via the ATM.
For this, the system will have to rely on an open and robust data transport system having full encryption and security, as revealed in the patent application. “The data transport supporting ATM management, signaling, and non-financial institution and financial institution transactions may be strictly communicated to a cloud platform … and subsequent hosting of web and application services may allow secure and scalable operations.”
Bank of America has filed as many as 50 blockchain-related patents as of August 2018, according to an iPR Daily report. The patent application in news is the latest to have to appear reporting Bank of America of showing interest in deploying blockchain technology.
The bank, however, was awarded a patent for a unique technique to store cryptocurrencies in November 2018. The patent would allow the bank to provide cryptocurrency users with a wider range of option for storing cryptocurrencies.
The demand for cryptocurrencies has increased among companies. To avail the varied storage facilities by the bank, the companies will have to convert a deposit of a certain amount of currency into a cryptocurrency to put it on hold.
This type of system brings number of benefits in terms of deploying bandwidth as well as memory and require lesser computational and power resources, as unveiled by the document. The system would provide the customer access to their respective account to allow them to complete the transactions. This will further enable them to complete a transaction using their cryptocurrency directly from their respective account.
As per the other patent filing, Bank of America has maintained a complete silence. There is no revelation related to other patent filings. Now it is hoped that the financial institution will disclose its plans for the digital ledger technology in the near future.
