NASDAQ Awarded Blockchain Patent for Releasing News As Part Of A Wire Service

NASDAQ Acquires Patent Sketching How Blockchain Could Be Used To Release Information As Part Of A Wire Service

This Tuesday, Nasdaq won a patent by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which explains how a blockchain could be used to securely release time-sensitive information when necessary. As the document describes, wire, newswire, news release or other digital distribution services currently share information at pre-set prohibition times to the intended outlets.

Even though present platforms can already issue information at specific times and to only the appropriate recipients, the patent notes that these systems may leave audit trail gaps – and some platforms may not be audit-friendly at all.

The abstract of the patent is as follows:

“An information computer system is provided for securely releasing time-sensitive information to recipients via a blockchain. A submitter submits a document to the system and a blockchain transaction is generated and submitted to the blockchain based on the document (e.g., the document is included as part of the blockchain transaction). An editor may edit the document and an approver may approve the document for release to the recipients. Each modification and/or approval of the document is recorded as a separate transaction on the blockchain where each of the submitter, editor, approver, and recipients interact with the blockchain with corresponding unique digital identifiers–such as private keys.”

Nasdaq's patent illustrates a blockchain platform that can appropriate smart contracts to both include various encryption and workflow features while sustaining a log that becomes more difficult to change over time. It explains that the computer system and blockchain are programmed to allow sharing of information directly to selected recipients at a pre-set time by using smart contracts that have been added to the blockchain.

The patent adds:

“Access to the sensitive information that is stored on the blockchain may include a multi-signature requirement that is part of the embedded scripts that make up a given blockchain transaction.”