Patent Issued for Blockchain Based Account Funding And Distribution (USPTO 10,861,015)

2020 DEC 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Alt, Jacob J. (Downs, IL); Bellas, Eric (Bloomington, IL); Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL); Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL); Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL); King, Vicki (Bloomington, IL); Roscow, Charles H. (Bloomington, IL); Shoop, Scott (Heyworth, IL); Hayes, Greg (Bloomington, IL); Jennings, Robert Alpine (Bloomington, IL); Nelson-Wolfe, Amber (Bloomington, IL); Tummala, Shyam (Bloomington, IL), filed on January 23, 2018, was published online on December 21, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,861,015 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In the business world, an interaction between a business and a customer, or the business and another business, typically requires validation of one or more pieces of information before a transaction can take place. This validation is often achieved by the participants involved in the interaction contacting a central authority that is a trusted source of truth for the particular piece of information. The central authority may then validate, or not validate the particular piece of information and communicate its findings to the participants. Based upon the validation, or lack of validation, a consensus among the participants is formed and assuming the information is valid the transaction between the participants may take place, and subsequently be recorded. Similar issues arise between citizens and their governments, and businesses and governments.

“Traditionally, businesses, customers, and central authorities have stored information related to transactions, and records of transactions, in databases, or ledgers which have been used in accounting to track transactions and information related to those transactions. Often these databases or ledgers held by the participants must be reconciled to achieve consensus as to the validity of the information stored in the databases and ledgers. Alternatively, as described above the central authority may be responsible for determining the validity of information stored in a database or a ledger and functioning as an arbiter of consensus for interested parties.

“A blockchain is a new way of achieving a distributed consensus on the validity or invalidity of information. As opposed to using a central authority, a blockchain is a distributed database or ledger, in which a transactional record is maintained at each node of a peer to peer network. Commonly, the distributed ledger is comprised of groupings of transactions bundled together into a ‘block.’ When a change to the distributed ledger is made (e.g., when a new transaction and/or block is created), each node must form a consensus as to how the change is integrated into the distributed ledger. Upon consensus, the agreed upon change is pushed out to each node so that each node maintains an identical copy of the updated distributed ledger. Any change that does not achieve a consensus is ignored. Accordingly, unlike a traditional system which uses a central authority, a single party cannot unilaterally alter the distributed ledger. This inability to modify past transactions lead to blockchains being generally described as trusted, secure, and/or immutable.

“Blockchains are typically deployed in an open, decentralized, and permissionless manner meaning that any party may view information, submit new information, or join the blockchain as a node responsible for confirming information. This open, decentralized, and permissionless approach to a blockchain has limitations. As an example, these blockchains may not be good candidates for interactions that require information to be kept private, or for interactions that require all participants to be vetted prior to their participation.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for account management using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, and/or transceivers, (1) receiving (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) at least one transaction from at least one participant, wherein the at least one transaction has a set of parameters; (2) verifying the at least one transaction, wherein verifying includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract; and (3) when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, (i) indicating a change in a balance for the at least one participant; and (ii) generating and transmitting (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a confirmation to the at least one participant that the transaction has been approved; and/or (4) when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generating and transmitting (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a rejection to the at least one participant that the transaction has been rejected. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for account funding and distribution using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, and/or transceivers, (1) receiving (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a request for funds from at least one participant, wherein the request for funds has a set of parameters; (2) verifying the request for funds, wherein verifying includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract; and (3) when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, (i) satisfying the request for funds by transmitting the corresponding amount of funds to the at least one participant; (ii) generating and transmitting (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a confirmation to the at least one participant that the request for funds has been approved; (iii) generating a block of transactions representative of requests for funds containing the at least one request for funds, and/or (iv) transmitting (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) the block of transactions to at least one participant; and/or (4) when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generating and transmitting (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a rejection to the at least one participant that the request for funds has been rejected. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In yet another aspect, a computer system for account funding and distribution using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants may be provided. The computer system may include a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions; and a processor (and an associated transceiver) configured to interface with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute non-transitory computer executable instructions. The non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor and/or associated transceiver to: (1) receive (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) at least one request for funds from at least one participant, wherein the at least one transaction has a set of parameters; (2) validate the request for funds, wherein validate includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract; and (3) when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, (i) indicate a change in a fund balance for the at least one participant; and (ii) generate and transmit (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a confirmation to the at least one participant that the transaction has been approved; and/or (4) when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generate and transmit (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio frequency links or communication channels) a rejection to the at least one participant that the transaction has been rejected. The system may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following description of the preferred aspects, which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present aspects may be capable of other and different aspects, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A computer-implemented method for account management using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants, the method comprising: receiving, at a processor coupled with a network interface, at least one transaction from at least one participant, wherein the at least one transaction has a set of parameters; verifying, at the processor, the at least one transaction, wherein verifying includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract, wherein the set of conditions is a list of requirements for funding an account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, and verifying that the at least one participant has ownership of an amount of funds being used to fund the account, and wherein when there is no account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, creating a new account on the blockchain for the at least one participant using the funds included in the transaction; and when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, indicating, at the processor, a change in a balance for the at least one participant; and generating and transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, a confirmation to the at least one participant that the transaction has been approved; and when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generating and transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, a rejection to the at least one participant that the transaction has been rejected.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the at least one transaction is a new account funding transaction.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the set of parameters include personally identifiable information for at least one person and an amount of funds.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein indicating a change in a fund balance for the at least one participant, further comprises adding funds included in the transaction to an account controlled by the at least one participant.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the processor coupled with the network interface, a block of transactions; verifying, at the processor, the block of transactions; transmitting, at the processor coupled with the network interface, the block of transactions to at least one other participant; and adding, at a memory coupled with the processor, the block of transactions to a copy of the blockchain.

“6. A computer-implemented method for account funding and distribution using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants, the method comprising: receiving, at a processor coupled with a network interface, a request for funds from at least one participant, wherein the request for funds has a set of parameters; verifying, at the processor, the request for funds, wherein verifying includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract, wherein the set of conditions is a list of requirements for funding an account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, and verifying that the at least one participant has ownership of an amount of funds being used to fund the account, and wherein when there is no account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, creating a new account on the blockchain for the at least one participant using the funds included in the transaction; and when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, satisfying the request for funds by transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, the corresponding amount of funds to the at least one participant; generating and transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, a confirmation to the at least one participant that the request for funds has been approved; and generating, via the processor, a block of transactions representative of requests for funds containing the at least one request for funds, and transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, the block of transactions to at least one participant; and when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generating and transmitting, via the processor coupled with the network interface, a rejection to the at least one participant that the request for funds has been rejected.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising: receiving, at the processor coupled with the network interface, a block of transactions representative of requests for funds; verifying, at the processor, the block of transactions; transmitting, at the processor coupled with the network interface, the block of transactions to at least one other participant; and adding, at a memory coupled with the processor, the block of transactions to a copy of the blockchain.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the at least one request for funds is a new account funding transaction.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, where the set of parameters include personally identifiable information for at least one person and an amount of funds.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein indicating a change in a fund balance for the at least one participant, further comprises adding funds included in the transaction to an account controlled by the at least one participant.

“11. A computer system for account funding and distribution using smart contracts stored on a blockchain maintained by a plurality of participants, the computer system comprising: a memory configured to store non-transitory computer executable instructions; and a processor configured to interface with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: receive at least one request for funds from at least one participant, wherein the at least one transaction has a set of parameters; validate the request for funds, wherein validate includes accessing a smart contract stored on the blockchain and checking the set of parameters against a set of conditions stored in the smart contract, wherein the set of conditions is a list of requirements for funding an account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, and verifying that the at least one participant has ownership of an amount of funds being used to fund the account, and wherein when there is no account stored on the blockchain corresponding to the transaction, creating a new account on the blockchain for the at least one participant using the funds included in the transaction; and when the set of parameters satisfy the set of conditions, indicate a change in a fund balance for the at least one participant; and generate and transmit a confirmation to the at least one participant that the transaction has been approved; and when the set of parameters do not satisfy the set of conditions, generate and transmit a rejection to the at least one participant that the transaction has been rejected.

“12. The system of claim 11, where the set of parameters include personally identifiable information for at least one person and an amount of funds.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein indicate a change in a fund balance for the at least one participant, further comprises add funds included in the transaction to an account controlled by the at least one participant.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to execute the non-transitory computer executable instructions to cause the processor to: receive a block of transactions; verify the block of transactions; transmit the block of transactions to at least one other participant; and add the block of transactions to a copy of the blockchain.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Alt, Jacob J.; Bellas, Eric; Skaggs, Jaime; Call, Shawn M.; Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa; King, Vicki; Roscow, Charles H.; Shoop, Scott; Hayes, Greg; Jennings, Robert Alpine; Nelson-Wolfe, Amber; Tummala, Shyam. Blockchain Based Account Funding And Distribution. U.S. Patent Number 10,861,015, filed January 23, 2018, and published online on December 21, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,861,015.PN.&OS=PN/10,861,015RS=PN/10,861,015

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