Patent Issued for Distributed ledger receipt wallet system and method (USPTO 11900337): United Services Automobile Association

2024 MAR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Fisher, Jon (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on December 13, 2021, was published online on February 13, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11900337, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to distributed ledgers, and more particularly to systems and methods for receipt wallets via a distributed ledger.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to help provide the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it is understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Various entities, including users of retail systems may engage in various retail transactions. For example, a person or entity (e.g. corporation) may use a retail system to purchase various items and services. Each purchase typically results in a receipt, acknowledging that the transaction took place, the date of the transaction, the monetary value involved, and so on. The receipt may then be kept, for example, for tax purposes, for warranty purposes, in case a return of merchandise has to occur, and the like. The techniques described herein may provide for improvement in systems and methods for receipt wallets (e.g., storage system for receipts) suitable for interfacing with various systems, including but not limited to banking and/or insurance systems.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to systems, devices, methods, and computer-readable media for creating, maintaining, and tracking purchasing information via a receipt wallet using a distributed ledger, resulting in one or more receipt trails. A receipt trail may include information, such as documents used during a purchase transaction, useful in establishing a repository of purchase transaction records. Information stored in the receipt trail(s) may be tracked using a distributed ledger system, such as a system that includes one or more blockchains. The blockchain(s) provide immutable and secure data storage, which may be distributed across a plurality of computing systems or nodes. As new transactions occur, the new transactions may be included in the distributed ledger system, thus “growing” the receipt trails throughout the lifetime of the entity (e.g., client) being tracked. The distributed ledger system, such as one or more blockchains, may be used to store the information, including new transactions, more efficiently and inexpensively. The distributed ledger system also provides security, such that only authorized individuals and/or processes can access the data stored on the distributed ledger system. The distributed ledger system also provides immutability, such that data records written to the distributed ledger may not be changed or removed once written.

“In certain embodiments, a blockchain may be used as a public or private receipt “wallet” of all purchase transactions that have been entered for the tracked entity. The blockchain may grow as new blocks are added based on a new set of transactions. In some examples, a single block is derived from multiple transactions. In general, blocks are added to the blockchain in a linear, chronological order by one or more computing devices in a peer-to-peer network of interconnected computing devices that execute a blockchain protocol. The peer-to-peer network may be described as a plurality of interconnected nodes, each node being a computing device that uses a client to validate and to relay transactions to other nodes. Each node may maintain a copy of the blockchain, which is automatically downloaded to the node upon joining the peer-to-peer network. The blockchain protocol provides a secure and reliable method of updating the blockchain, copies of which are distributed across the peer-to-peer network, without use of a central authority.

“Because all entities on the blockchain network may need to know all previous transactions to validate a requested transaction, all entities should agree on which transactions have actually occurred, and in which order. For example, should two entities observe different transaction histories, they will be unable to come to the same conclusion regarding the validity of a transaction. The blockchain techniques described herein enable all entities to come to an agreement as to transactions that have already occurred, and in which order. As described in further detail below, a ledger of transactions for the receipt trail is agreed to based on the amount of work (e.g., computing work such as hashing) required to add a transaction to the audit ledger (e.g., add a block to the blockchain). Blockchains may also employ other protocols, for example, that may define “work” differently. The work may be a computing task that may be difficult for any single node (e.g., computing device) in the peer-to-peer network to complete quickly, but is relatively easy for any node (e.g., computing device) to verify.

“The peer-to-peer network may include multiple “miners” (e.g., computing devices) that add blocks to a blockchain based on the blockchain protocol. In general, multiple miners validate transactions that are to be added to a block, and compete (e.g., perform computing work, as introduced above) to have their respective block added to the blockchain. Validation of transactions includes verifying digital signatures associated with respective transactions. For a block to be added to the blockchain, a miner must demonstrate a proof of work before their proposed block of transactions is accepted by the peer-to-peer network, and before the block is added to the blockchain. In certain embodiments, a blockchain protocol include a proof of work scheme that is based on a cryptographic hash function (CHF). An example CHF includes the secure hash algorithm 256 (SHA-256). In general, the CHF receives information as input, and provides a hash value as output, the hash value being of a predetermined length. For example, SHA-256 outputs a 256-bit (32-byte, 64-character) hash value. In some examples, the hash value is a one-way hash value such that the output hash value cannot be ‘un-hashed’ to determine what the input was. The blockchain protocol can require multiple pieces of information as input to the CHF. For example, the input to the CHF can include a reference to the previous (most recent) block in the blockchain, details of the transaction(s) that are to be included in the to be created block, and a “nonce” value (e.g., a random number used only once).

“Multiple nodes may compete to hash a set of transactions and to provide the next block that is to be added to the blockchain. The blockchain protocol provides a threshold hash to qualify a block to be added to the blockchain. For example, the threshold hash can include a predefined number of zeros (0’s) that the hash value must have at the beginning (e.g., at least the first four characters of the hash value must each be zero). The higher the number of zeros, the more computationally time-consuming it may be to arrive at a qualifying hash value.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. One or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable storage media storing instructions thereon which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: establishing a communicative coupling with a point of sale terminal; receiving, from the point of sale terminal, completed purchase data; transforming the completed purchase data into a receipt trail record; storing the receipt trail record in at least one block of a digital distributed ledger system; and distributing the at least one block among nodes of the digital distributed ledger system.

“2. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise receiving, from the point of sale terminal, the completed purchase data including data indicative of a physical asset and a purchase price paid for the physical asset.

“3. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise receiving, from the point of sale terminal, the completed purchase data including data indicative of a service and a purchase price paid for the service.

“4. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising preparing a receipts audit report based on the receipt trail record by querying the digital distributed ledger system.

“5. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise distributing the at least one block among the nodes of the digital distributed ledger system via a peer-to-peer network.

“6. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprise storing a wallet owner identification record in the digital distributed ledger system prior to transforming the completed purchase data into the receipt trail record.

“7. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise establishing the communicative coupling with the point of sale terminal via a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection with the point of sale terminal.

“8. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprise querying the digital distributed ledger system in response to a request to return an item associated with the completed purchase data.

“9. A system, comprising: a point of sale terminal configured to generate purchase data corresponding to a purchased product or service; at least one processor configured to: establish a communicative coupling with the point of sale terminal; receive the purchase data from the point of sale terminal; transform the purchase data into a receipt trail record; store the receipt trail record in at least one block of a digital distributed ledger system; and distribute the at least one block among nodes of the digital distributed ledger system.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive, from the point of sale terminal, the purchase data including first data indicative of a physical asset and a first purchase price paid for the physical asset; or receive, from the point of sale terminal, the purchase data including second data indicative of a service and a second purchase price paid for the service.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to transform the purchase data into the receipt trail record by linking at least one seller verification record to at least one buyer verification record as a linked record and storing the linked record in the receipt trail record.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to prepare a receipts audit report based on the receipt trail record by querying the digital distributed ledger system for a tax-based subset of data, an internal corporate audit subset of data, a personal expenditures subset of data, or any combination thereof.

“13. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to establish the communicative coupling with the point of sale terminal via a wireless connection.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is configured to distribute the at least one block among the nodes of the digital distributed ledger system via a peer-to-peer network.

“15. The system of claim 9, wherein the point of sale terminal is configured to: enable a credit card purchase; and generate the purchase data from the credit card purchase.

“16. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, via at least one processor, completed purchase data including: first data indicative of a physical asset and a first purchase price paid for the physical asset; or second data indicative of a service and a second purchase price paid for the service; transforming, via the at least one processor, the completed purchase data into a receipt trail record; storing, via the at least one processor, the receipt trail record in at least one block of a digital distributed ledger system; and distributing, via the at least one processor, the at least one block among nodes of the digital distributed ledger system.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, comprising: establishing a communicative coupling between the at least one processor and a point of sale terminal; and receiving, via the at least one processor and from the point of sale terminal, the completed purchase data.

“18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, comprising preparing, via the at least one processor, a receipts audit report based on the receipt trail record by querying the digital distributed ledger system for a subset of data, the subset of data comprising a tax-based subset, an internal corporate audit subset, a personal expenditures subset, or any combination thereof.

“19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, comprising distributing, via the at least one processor, the at least one block among the nodes of the digital distributed ledger system via a peer-to-peer network.

“20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein transforming, via the at least one processor, the completed purchase data into the receipt trail record comprises: linking at least one seller verification record to at least one buyer verification record as a linked record; and storing the linked record in the receipt trail record.”

For more information, see this patent: Fisher, Jon. Distributed ledger receipt wallet system and method. U.S. Patent Number 11900337, filed December 13, 2021, and published online on February 13, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11900337)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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