Mastercard has obtained a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday for a technique to speed up cryptocurrency payments. The document opines that even though cryptocurrencies have “seen increased usage over traditional fiat currencies by consumers who value anonymity and security,” the huge difference in payment processing times between fiat and cryptocurrencies put the latter at a “disadvantage.”
The patent states that “There is a need to improve on the storage and processing of transactions that utilize blockchain currencies.”
The patent further states
“It often takes a significant amount of time, around ten minutes, for a blockchain-based transaction to be processed … Conversely, traditional fiat payment transactions that are processed using payment networks often have processing times that are measured in nanoseconds … Therefore, many entities, particularly merchants, retailers, service providers, and other purveyors of goods and services, may be wary of accepting blockchain currency for products and participating in blockchain transactions.”
To minimize delays while performing a transaction using cryptocurrency, MasterCard is offering a unique user account, which enables transacting in cryptocurrencies through the prevailing systems for fiat currencies. The unique account connects to multiple profiles of a user such as “fiat currency amount, a blockchain currency amount, an account identifier and an address.”
The transactions would be completed using the fiat currency’s security features and payment rails. However, each transaction would constitute a cryptocurrency. Mastercard also stated that by handling the transactions done through cryptocurrencies in this way, “payment networks may be able to evaluate the likelihood of fraud and assess risk for blockchain transactions using existing fraud and risk algorithms and information that is available to payment networks, such as historical fiat and blockchain transaction data, credit bureau data, demographic information, etc., that is unavailable for use in blockchain networks.”
Notably, last year Mastercard applied for a separate patent for a system providing refund services for cryptocurrency. In this manner, the company aims to provide consumer protection while dealing with transactions related to cryptocurrenies.
