Mastercard's major credit card companies have filed a patent application to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the creation of a refund service for digital currency users. In a patent entitled "Information Transaction Infrastructure," the company hinted at its plans to explore possible ways to implement this feature.
Based on published documents, the proposed service will build an infrastructure that enables users to verify their identity and connect it to the digital currency address they have chosen to use. Examples of how the system will work are also included.
The system proposed by Mastercard aims to facilitate the refund process in payment transactions.
Under the current system, customers requesting a refund should send funds back to the same address for the same amount when they make a payment. Mastercard also creates a service that allows users to choose a refund for delivery to a different wallet address. This system will help ease payment returns more easily and quickly as part of the app explains:
The first party's private address is not communicated to a second party, but the first party's public address is communicated to a second party. This approach is particularly suitable for cryptocurrency transfers, as it enables effective refund mechanisms.
Mastercard is not the only financial institution that gets patent approval. In fact, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, are some of the leading applicants for upgrading applications received by the USPTO in the first quarter of 2017 whose applications are still under approval.