Patent Issued for Distributed ledger systems for tracking recurring transaction authorizations (USPTO 11195177): United Services Automobile Association

2021 DEC 24 (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 Vijayvergia, Gunjan (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on November 30, 2016, was published online on December 7, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11195177, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Parties often conduct transactions by providing financial account information to others, and authorizing the transfer to funds using the provided information. As an example, a customer can provide a merchant with an account identifier that identifies a specific financial account (e.g., an account number, a routing number, a credit card number, a debit card number, etc.), and authorize the merchant to draw funds from the identified financial account. The merchant draws the funds and, in exchange, furnishes the customer with a good or service.

“In some cases, parties can authorize multiple recurring transactions over a period of time. As an example, a customer can provide a merchant with an account identifier that identifies a specific financial account, and authorize the merchant to draw funds from the identified financial account on a recurring basis. The merchant retains the account identifier, and draws funds from the identified financial account as needed (e.g., on demand or periodically). This can be useful, for example, as it enables the customer to conduct multiple transactions with the merchant, without requiring that the customer separately authorize each individual transaction.

“However, in some cases, a party’s account identifier may change. As an example, if a customer’s credit card is stolen, a financial institution may invalidate the original credit card number associated with the customer’s account, and issue the customer a new credit card number. Because of this change, merchants having the customer’s original credit card number may have difficulty completing transactions.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In general, in an aspect, a computer-implemented method is executed by at least one processor. The method includes receiving, at a first computing system in a distributed computing network, a first notification from a second computing system in the distributed computing network. The first notification identifies a first block in a distributed blockchain. The first block encodes authorization data describing a recurring payment authorization between a user and a merchant. The authorization data includes an account identifier associated with an account held by the user, and an identity of the merchant. The method also includes obtaining, by the first computing system, the first block from the distributed computing network. The method also includes decoding, by the first computing system, the first block to determine an association between the user, the account, and the merchant.

“Implementations of this aspect can include one or more of the following features.

“In some implementations, determining the association between the user, the account, and the merchant can include determining that the user authorized a recurring payment with the merchant using the account.

“In some implementations, the method can further include determining, by the first computing system, that the account identifier associated with the account has been modified, and generating, by the first computing system, a second block, the second block encoding the modified account identifier and the identity of the merchant. The method can also include transmitting the second block from the first computing system to the distributed computing network, and transmitting a second notification identifying the second block from the first computing system to the second computing system.

“In some implementations, determining that the account identifier associated with the account has been modified can include determining that a first account identifier associated with the account has been revoked, and determining a replacement account identifier associated with the account.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method executed by at least one processor, the method comprising: receiving, at a first computing system in a distributed computing network, a first notification from a second computing system in the distributed computing network, wherein the distributed computing network is configured to access a distributed blockchain comprising a plurality of blocks, wherein each block of the plurality of blocks is associated with a respective recurring payment authorization between a respective user and one merchant, wherein the first computing system is associated with the one merchant, wherein the first notification is automatically transmitted via a smart contract agent of the second computing system, after receiving an update to a first block of the plurality of blocks in the distributed blockchain, wherein the update is associated with a change to a first recurring payment authorization between a first user and the one merchant, and wherein the first notification is indicative of: the change to the first recurring payment authorization between the first user and the one merchant; the first block in the distributed blockchain, wherein the first block comprises encoded authorization data representative of: the first recurring payment authorization; a replacement account identifier comprising an account identifier associated with an account held by the first user; an identity of the one merchant; and a derivative of a token, wherein the derivative of the token is generated by a trusted party of the distributed computing network; determining, by the first computing system, that the account identifier associated with the first user has been modified based on the first notification; retrieving, by the first computing system, the first block comprising the replacement account identifier in response to determining that the account identifier associated with the first user has been modified; verifying, by the first computing system, that the first block is generated by the trusted party of the distributed computing network and that the first block is associated with the first recurring payment authorization by applying a proof of stake protocol to the derivative of the token to determine whether the token is associated with a stake in distributed blockchain; decoding, by the first computing system, the encoded authorization data in the first block to determine the replacement account identifier to use in the first recurring payment authorization in response to determining the trusted party possesses the token; updating an internal record stored in a storage component of the first computing system based on decoding the encoded authorization data, wherein the record comprises the first recurring payment authorization and the replacement account identifier; and conducting, by the first computing system, a transaction for a recurring payment operation using the replacement account identifier and the first recurring payment authorization based on the record.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the account identifier associated with the account has been modified comprises determining that the account identifier associated with the account has been revoked.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the account identifier comprises at least one of an account number, a routing number, a credit card number, or a debit card number.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first block is encoded, at least in part, based on a first public key associated with a financial institution associated with the account and a first private key associated with the one merchant, and wherein the first block is decodable, at least in part, based on a second private key associated with the financial institution and a second public key associated with the one merchant.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the first computing system, validation data corresponding to the first block; and transmitting the validation data to the distributed computing network.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the validation data comprises applying the proof of stake protocol to the other block in the distributed computing network to obtain a proof of stake value, wherein the proof of stake value satisfies a predefined requirement of the proof of stake protocol, and wherein transmitting the validation data to the distributed computing network comprises transmitting the proof of stake value to the distributed computing network.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a local copy of the distributed blockchain on the first computing system, the distributed blockchain comprising a plurality of blocks, the plurality of blocks encoding additional authorization data describing one or more previous recurring payment authorizations between one or more users and one or more merchants; and appending the first block to the local copy of the distributed blockchain.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification comprises an index value identifying the first block.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the second computing system is associated with a financial institution.

“10. A system comprising: a first computing system in a distributed computing network, the first computing system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non transitory computer readable media storing instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving, at the first computing system, a first notification from a second computing system in the distributed computing network, wherein the distributed computing network is configured to access to a distributed blockchain comprising a plurality of blocks, wherein each block of the plurality of blocks is associated with a respective recurring payment authorization between a respective user and one merchant, wherein the first computing system is associated with the one merchant, wherein the first notification is automatically transmitted via a smart contract agent of the second computing system, after receiving an update to a first block of the plurality of blocks in the distributed blockchain, wherein the update is associated with a change to a first recurring payment authorization between a first user and the one merchant, and wherein the first notification is indicative of: the change to the first recurring payment authorization between the first user and the one merchant; and the first block in the distributed blockchain, wherein the first block comprises encoded authorization data representative of: the first recurring payment authorization; a replacement account identifier comprising an account identifier associated with an account held by the first user; an identity of the one merchant; and a derivative of a token, wherein the derivative of the token is generated by a trusted party of the distributed computing network; determining, by the first computing system, that the account identifier associated with the first user has been modified based on the first notification; retrieving, by the first computing system, the first block comprising the replacement account identifier in response to determining that the account identifier associated with the first user has been modified; verifying, by the first computing system, that the first block is generated by the trusted party of the distributed computing network and that the first block is associated with the first recurring payment authorization by applying a proof of stake protocol to the derivative of the token to determine whether the token is associated with a stake in distributed blockchain; decoding, by the first computing system, the encoded authorization data in the first block to determine the replacement account identifier to use in the first recurring payment authorization in response to determining the trusted party possesses the token; updating an internal record stored in a storage component of the first computing system based on decoding the encoded authorization data, wherein the record comprises the first recurring payment authorization and the replacement account identifier; and conducting, by the first computing system, a transaction for a recurring payment operation using the replacement account identifier and the first recurring payment authorization based on the record.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein determining that the account identifier associated with the account has been modified comprises determining that the account identifier associated with the account has been revoked.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein the account identifier comprises at least one of an account number, a routing number, a credit card number, or a debit card number.

“13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first block is encoded, at least in part, based on a first public key associated with a financial institution associated with the account and a first private key associated with the one merchant, and wherein the first block is decodable, at least in part, based on a second private key associated with the financial institution and a second public key associated with the one merchant.

“14. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: generating, by the first computing system, validation data corresponding to the first block; and transmitting the validation data to the distributed computing network.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein generating the validation data comprises applying the proof of stake protocol to the other block in the distributed computing network to obtain a proof of stake value, wherein the proof of stake value satisfies a predefined requirement of the proof of stake protocol, and wherein transmitting the validation data to the distributed computing network comprises transmitting the proof of stake value to the distributed computing network.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Vijayvergia, Gunjan. Distributed ledger systems for tracking recurring transaction authorizations. U.S. Patent Number 11195177, filed November 30, 2016, and published online on December 7, 2021. 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=11195177.PN.&OS=PN/11195177RS=PN/11195177

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