According to the blockchain firm Nchain and its CEO Jimmy Nguyen, the company has secured its first approved patent recognized by the European Patent Office. The patent involves an invention that provides a method for an automated management and blockchain-enforced smart contracts.
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Blockchain Firm Nchain Gets an Automated Management and Smart Contract Patent Approved by the European Patent Office
Nchain is a blockchain technology-based research and development organization led by Jimmy Nguyen, chief scientist Dr. Craig Wright, and over sixty researchers, engineers, and other professionals based in Europe and Canada. Over the past couple of weeks, Wright has been releasing a series of research papers that apply to the bitcoin infrastructure and the overall network. The subjects discussed within his latest papers include Turing completeness for the bitcoin protocol, and other mathematical distributed consensus critiques.
Now the firm has secured its first approved patent among many filings with the European Patent Office (EPO). The patented invention was curated by Wright and claims it will allow the storing of metadata, implementing digital tokens, and smart contract management. According to an interview with Nchain’s Jimmy Nguyen and Coingeek columnist Cecille De Jesus, the CEO explains that the IP assets will be available for free for individuals and development teams dedicating their energy to the Bitcoin Cash network. Nguyen explains the EPO approval is a milestone for Nchain and he expects more EPO filings will be approved.
“This first patent grant by the European Patent Office marks a major milestone in Nchain’s ambitious research and patent program, which started approximately two years ago,” Nguyen explains.
We expect this will be the first of many more patents to come, as our portfolio of blockchain patent applications is among the largest – if not the largest – in the world.
Metadata, Digital Tokens, and Smart Contract on Bitcoin Cash
Nchain’s patent titled, “Registry and Automated Management Method for Blockchain-Enforced Smart Contracts,” is described as a computer-implemented method of storing a contract in a network repository and broadcasting a transaction with:
“At least one unspent output (UTXO); and metadata comprising an identifier indicative of the location where the contract is stored; and renewing or rolling the contract on by: generating a new key using data relating to a previous key associated with the contract; generating a script comprising the new key, the location of the contract and a hash of the contract; and paying an amount of currency to the script.”
The patent gives an explanation of the entire invention alongside schematics and data. Much of the invention discusses metadata implementation that can store the hash of a smart contract, repositories that can comprise a database, index, and searchable browsers. Further, it discusses security mechanisms tethered to smart contracts as well.
IP Rights for BCH Development With the ‘Nchain Open Bitcoin Cash License’
Nguyen reveals that Nchain has decided to offer the IP exclusively to the bitcoin cash (BCH) community. This means any of Nchain’s inventions will be made available for BCH developers and development teams through the use of a BCH-based license.
“While we are building enterprise value through our patent portfolio, Nchain is committed to using our intellectual property to benefit the bitcoin cash community,” Nguyen notes. “We intend to make key IP assets available for free usage only on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain – through our new ‘Nchain Open Bitcoin Cash License.’”
This will give Bitcoin Cash significant advantages over other blockchains, and will incentivize businesses to operate on the BCH blockchain, which represents the original vision of Bitcoin.
What do you think about Nchain getting a patent approved by the EPO? What do you think about them creating an open BCH license? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Nchain’s patent schematics, and Pixabay.
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