JP Morgan to be precise
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/11/jp-morgan-bitcoinUS investment bank JP Morgan has filed a patent application for a new type of fee-free, anonymous internet payment system that sounds a lot like cryptocurrency Bitcoin. But as it turns out, the application is a renewal of a patent first filed in 1999, suggesting that if the bank had envisioned a Bitcoin-style digital currency for the future, it was well-ahead of the game.
What JP Morgan intends to do, if anything, with the patent, is unclear. "Embodiments of the invention include a method and system for conducting financial transactions over a payment network," the patent begins. So far, so pedestrian. "The method further includes freely publishing the payment address and making it available to users of an internet portal or search engine," it continues somewhat less vaguely, before going on to repeatedly refer to a "virtual cash" system driven via a customer's virtual "wallet".
The patent predicts that credit cards will remain the payment method of choice for at least the next five years, arguing that in spite of the growth of internet payment mechanisms (like Paypal) "none of the emerging efforts to date have gotten more than a toehold in the market place and momentum continues to build in favour of credit cards".
This is where the application differs vastly from the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. The system described still has the customer linked to a credit card, with credit card-like benefits still attached but now maintained in the virtual wallet (things like air miles or vouchers). "Wallet enriches the consumer ecommerce experience by eliminating the tedious process of tilling out lengthy payment and shipping fields as this is done automatically," reads the patent. And although the proposed system relies on anonymity, like Bitcoin, "with the recipient of the credit having no way to determine from where the credit originate," there are no added security benefits. Instead, the proposed system appears to rely on the usual suspects, "software certification, an encrypted PIN, or the mother's maiden name".
The whole thing, according to the application, is a continuation of another patent filed in 2000 based on a preexisting 1999 patent.
Before Bitcoin-owners everywhere panic that the currency is about to be challenged in the courts if JP Morgan decides to claim ownership, Bloomberg has published an article revealing an anonymous spokesperson that works for the bank does not believe there are any plans to develop a Bitcoin competitor
"JP Morgan, the biggest US bank by assets, doesn't have anything in development nor does it plan to produce virtual currencies to compete with Bitcoin, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the New York-based company's strategy isn't public," writes reporter Dawn Kopecki. "It was never intended to be a competitor to Bitcoin, the person said."
When Wired.co.uk reached out to JP Morgan, the company declined to comment.
