LONDON, April 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- nChain, the global leader in research and development of blockchain technologies, is pleased to announce issuance of its first patent by the European Patent Office. This first issued patent, granted by the EPO on April 14, 2018, is for a registry and automated management method for blockchain-enforced smart contracts.
- patent – European Patent Office number EP3257191 - is entitled "A method and system for securing computer software using a distributed hash table and a blockchain". invention covers a technique that will work for any content that has an executable phase (which is not limited to computer software, but can incorporate music, video and even PDF files) to check, via a blockchain lookup that the accessing resource both has acquired a license for the content, and more importantly that the license remains valid. The invention can be deployed by content producers and rightsholders to more efficiently perform digital rights management, especially for auto-renewing contracts common to digital subscription services, using smart contracts on the blockchain. Further information on this invention can be found on nChain's website at this link.
- patent builds upon one of nChain's other patent-pending inventions - WO2017145016 (Deterministic Key Generation). That invention, entitled "Determining a common secret for the secure exchange of information and hierarchical deterministic cryptographic keys", provides a method whereby two connected nodes, with no trust relationship between them can derive a deterministic hierarchy of each other's public keys through simply sharing their respective public keys and a message of some format, where the respective private keys can still only be generated by the owner of that private key. This invention provides significant security benefits to prevent "Mt. Gox-type" hacks of e-wallets. It can also be used for any situation in which sensitive data, assets, communications or controlled resources need to be secured. Further information on this method can be found on nChain's website at this link.
nChain Chief Scientist Dr. Craig Wright is a key inventor for both referenced inventions.
nChain Group CEO Jimmy Nguyen comments:
"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. 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."
Website: nChain.com
Twitter: @nChainGlobal
ABOUT NCHAIN GROUP: The nChain Group is the global leader in research and development of blockchain technologies.
