Bank of America, the second largest bank in the US with over 50 cryptocurrency and blockchain-related patents to their name, has received the grant of a patent that allows the bank to set up a digital storage for private Keys. The patent was filed by the bank in September 2016 and was awarded to them on October 30, 2018.
The bank is among the biggest players in the US when it comes to filing patents related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Titled ‘Systems and devices for hardened remote storage of private cryptography keys used for authentication’, this patent talks about a ‘tamper-responsive’ remote storage of private Keys as can be seen in the extract below:
“[While many […] devices may provide for acquiring evidence of a security breach (i.e., physical or non-physical tampering with the device and/or the data), such devices do not provide for a real-time response to such breaches, such that misappropriation of private cryptography keys is prevented,” BoA writes. The patent filing continues: “Therefore, a need exists for a secure means for storing private cryptography keys. The desired storage means should reduce the risk of misappropriation of keys due to the keys being stored internally within a computing node that is frequently or, in some instances, continuously accessible via a public communication network, such as the Internet.”
The banking giant has sought several patents in the past few months, these relating variously to external validation, data storage, and others. At the same time, officials have remained skeptical of cryptocurrency itself, banning credit card customers from purchasing it while admitting Bitcoin (BTC) represented a “troubling” issue for its operations.
While this patent does sound quite useful, it is not guaranteed that the bank will bring it to reality, since it is common that companies file patents to secure a technology but very rarely acted upon the patents, especially in the world of cryptocurrencies, where patents are abundant but are rarely used.