Information published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) shows that there is a new blockchain-related patent given out. Notably, the patent was given to Forcepoint, a company owned by Raytheon and other partners. Forcepoint is a cybersecurity company which focuses on enabling companies to protect themselves from malicious attacks. The abstract of the patent document identifies the invention as the ability to monitor the behavior of users on the internet.
The technology defines how to monitor user activity
According to the patent documents, the system enables the storage of electronically observable user data concerning online interactions. In particular, the management system gives relevant authorities the ability to identify the behavior and motives of online characters. The primary endpoint of the system is to help authorities to identify, isolate and cure cybersecurity threats.
The intersection with blockchain comes in during the storage phase of the data. As per the patent documents, data storage is one of the major selling points of blockchain. For starters, blockchain technology stores data in an immutable form such that no one can tamper with the data. Further, the patent identifies certain aspects of the data management system which rely on blockchain technology. Notably, the aspects will rely on the replicated nature of blockchain to make it difficult for bad actors to modify or replicate historical records.
China leads in blockchain-related patents
Besides Forcepoint, PayPal is the latest US Company to earn a patent for blockchain-related reasons. Notably, documents from the USPTO described the technology behind the patent as having the ability to protect users from ransomware which demands crypto. For starters, ransomware is a hack attack where a hacker encrypts user files and demands a certain amount of money for the user to regain control of the computer.
US and Chinese companies are in an apparent arms race for blockchain-related patents. But China seems to be winning the race despite a recent ban to cryptocurrency mining. According data from The Next Web, Chinese companies have 790 blockchain-related patents against 762 by their American peers. Going forward, the competition is going to tighten as the companies pour more funds into research.
