Mastercard Patents Blockchain Tech To Combat Fake Identities

Mastercard has filed a patent for a Blockchain system to store and verify identity data, in an application published by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office April 12.

"Traditionally, proof has been provided via government identification, credit cards, business cards[such] proof may be inaccurate or may be entirely fabricated in ways that may be difficult to identify there is a need for a technical solution to provide for the immutable storage of identity and credential data."

The patent continues to outline the ways in which the distributed storage of identity data on a Blockchain system can function to prevent such abuses.

In only permitting authorised nodes to submit and update system data, the patent proposes aprivate, rather than public, Blockchain solution.

MasterCard-approved nodes would require each entity to provide, as a minimum, a public key and a geographic jurisdiction in order to generate a data file.

A "Hashing module" of MasterCard's processing server would then generate an "Identity value" for each entity and create a timestamped block, with a record of the most recent block added to the Blockchain.

In this way, the patent concludes, the Blockchain can function to "Maintain a continuously growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision."

MasterCard submitted a Blockchain tech patent for instant payments back in Nov. 2017, with its Blockchain system offering business-to-business payments in place since Oct. 2017.

Sunday, April 15, Cointelegraph reported that MasterCard Ireland is recruiting 175 new employees in Dublin, with a specific appeal to Blockchain tech specialists.

MasterCard Labs has reportedly filed for over 30 "Patents related to Blockchain tech and cryptocurrency" to date, yet the company's CEO notoriously disparaged non-government mandated altcoins as "Junk." This stance was once more emphasized this March, with a senior MasterCard executive highlighting the company's receptivity to central bank issued digital currencies only.