Paypal applies for "Virtual Currency Wallet System" patent
Brian Cohen tweeted today that Paypal is applying to patent a "digital currency wallet system", however what I find confusing is that such a system already exists, there are lots of mobile and online wallets that deal with digital currency transactions.
So I wonfer if this is a big company move to take advantage of an non-patented software that already exists and then try to bully small companies with their lawyers, or if they are actually going to launch a mobile wallet for cryptocurrencies?
Skimming this patent it seems to be a way to transfer currency from an address in a virtual wallet stored on a device (local, cloud, or physical medium attached to the device) to an address encoded on a physical card and vice versa. For example, I have accepted swiped credit cards on my phone for payment of services. This would allow transactions of the same kind using cryptocurrency.
I also question how these patents will affect the crypto world. If these companies will actually use the patents or are they a way to prevent crypto from growing or being used in new ways.
For example, Bank of America has filed a patent to protect wire transfers. The patent covers sending crypto currency from point A to point B where upon receipt point B would then convert the crypto to local currency and distribute it to the recipient.
While Bank of America has filed over 35 cryptocurrency related patents so have many others including banks, retailers, and credit card companies. I'm sceptical that all of the companies applying for patents actually have any intention on developing the software/hardware behind them.
Me too
It looks like litecoin and doge are going to be included, which is great development for those currencies
Yeah Litecoin community seems excited, they are up 15% today!
This is eBay we are talking about... the owner of Paypal.
And no they are not interested in growing the technology. These are road blocks 'aka' gotchas.