By Blockchain has been touted as the technology of the future not just because of cryptocurrency, which is arguably the most famous offering, but also because of the many applications it has within the business, healthcare, finance sectors and so on. As a result of this, many large firms are launching blockchain pilots consistently to explore the possible use of it and there has also been a sharp increase in the number of patents that are filed for blockchain-related applications.
According to a July 16, 2019 report by Beincrypto, one of the leading firms in terms of blockchain patents is IBM who in the last year have grown their number of blockchain-related patents by 300 percent. Besides IBM, who have 108 active patent families, Bank of America has 52, MasterCard has 43 and Intel has 35.
Patented Blockchains
The reason these companies are so aggressive in filing for patterns for blockchain technology is that blockchain is an emerging space and so there is no telling for now where the most profitable application of it will be and so companies are casting a wider net and acquiring as many patents as they can ahead of this.
IBM, on their part, run World Wire, which is a cross-border payment system developed by its blockchain division. Besides developing blockchain and filing patents, IBM is one of the largest employers of blockchain-related talent as a report by TeqAtlas shows that IBM has 335 blockchain-related job openings while the second is Oracle with 173 openings.
The company’s enthusiasm for blockchain was once again shown when John Wolpert, Global Product Executive at IBM and Co-Founder of its blockchain development division, tweeted that he had bought some Chainlink and that he’s looking to set up an Oracle.
Besides setting up strategic partnerships with emerging firms within the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, their World Wire platform is considered to be an up-and-coming competitor for SWIFT in that SWIFT payments can take up to 3 days to be completely processed whereas IBM’s world Wire can transact them in a few minutes.
However, they do have some competition from Alibaba who are based in China. In terms of countries, China is leading the way with blockchain patents and while IBM individually has the largest number of blockchain patents, Alibaba is hot on their heels. With time, it should emerge just who is going to come out on top in this blockchain patent race.
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