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PayPal files patent related to cryptocurrency transaction times

Wednesday 7 March 2018 10:56 CET | News

PayPal has filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) a patent for a system designed to improve the speed of cryptocurrency payments.

The payment processing company has developed a system through which senders and receivers can swap private keys rather than sending coins over the network through traditional means, according to USPTO documents.

Currently, Bitcoin blocks are mined approximately every 10 minutes, meaning that users must wait at least that long for their transactions to be “confirmed” by the network. As a result, issues like this have slowed the adoption of virtual currencies despite their advantages, the official patent states.

While many cryptocurrencies have sought to address this concern by shortening block times, users are still subject to higher fees and slower confirmation times when the networks become congested. Under PayPal’s proposal, the system would automatically create multiple secondary wallets for its users — wallets whose private keys could be aggregated and transferred to match any desired payment amount, according to online publication CCN. This, the patent argues, would “practically eliminate” confirmation times.


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Keywords: PayPal, online payments, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency transactions, US
Categories: DeFi & Crypto & Web3
Companies:
Countries: World
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DeFi & Crypto & Web3