During the first week of December, the second
largest bank in the U.S., Bank of America (BOA)
, was awarded a cryptocurrency exchange patent.
The BOA cryptocurrency trading platform’s
concept summary outlines three types of
accounts where users and businesses can swap
digital assets instantly.
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Bank of America Receives Approval for a
Cryptocurrency Exchange Patent
On December 5 the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) granted the financial institution
Bank of America a patent to build a
cryptocurrency exchange. The patent’s summary
describes three types of accounts within the
platform’s system. The first account is for
customers to store their digital funds. The second
and third accounts operated by the business are
called “float accounts” which allow quick digital
asset swaps from behind the scenes similar to a
centralized Shapeshift concept.
BOA is one of the most active banks filing for
blockchain and cryptocurrency-related patents
over the past few years. Last summer the firm
applied for over twenty patents this past August
covering digital asset solutions to public and
private blockchain concepts. The digital asset
trading platform patent was filed in 2014 during
the month of June. The patent called the
“cryptocurrency transformation system” is
explained quite thoroughly within the summary.
“The system further comprises a processor
communicatively coupled to the memory — The
processor may receive an electronic request for
a currency exchange and determine exchange
rates for exchanging a first currency for a
second currency,” explains the BOA patent
- “The processor may also determine an
optimal exchange rate.”
In response to determining the
optimal exchange rate, the
processor may determine a first
amount of the first currency and
associate the first amount with
the customer account. The
processor may also transfer the
first amount of the first currency
into the first float account and
determine a second amount of the
second currency. The processor is
further able to associate the
second amount with the second
float account and transfer the
second amount of the second
currency to the customer.
BOA patent 9836790 was invented by Ronca;
James G., Castinado; Joseph B., Dolan;
Heather, Durbin; Thomas E., Thomas; Richard
H. The firm applied for the patent on June
16, 2014.
While BOA Captures the Most Cryptocurrency
Patents, the Company Also Likes to Close
Customer Accounts if They Trade Bitcoin
In addition to BOA trying to capture a lot of
blockchain and cryptocurrency patents, the
company isn’t too friendly towards bitcoin
traders. The financial institution has been well-
known for closing people’s bank accounts if they
trade bitcoin. There are many instances where
BOA closed a customer’s account for purchasing
cryptocurrencies using applications like Coinbase
which deposits money into checking or savings
accounts. In fact, this December one customer
was sent an 8-page document asking about his
cryptocurrency usage and was required to fill out
the paperwork before his account service was
interrupted.
Ironically, the latest patent approval for a BOA
controlled cryptocurrency exchange shows the
bank favors digital assets, and the institution
could very well build the platform in the near
future with its awarded patent.