U.S. Patent 9948467 was awarded to MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED on April 17, 2018 and is entitled “Method and system for blockchain variant using digital signatures.” The first named inventor is David King of Menlo Park, CA. The abstract contains an overview of the patent disclosure:

A method for using digital signatures for signing blockchain transactions includes: generating a domain key pair comprising a domain private key and a domain public key, wherein the domain public key is signed after generation; receiving a plurality of member public keys, wherein each member public key is received from an associated member of a blockchain network and is a public key in a key pair comprising the member public key and a member private key corresponding to the associated member; signing each member public key using the domain private key; receiving a transaction block from a specific member of the blockchain network, wherein the transaction block includes a plurality of blockchain transaction values and a hash signed using the member private key corresponding to the specific member; signing the received transaction block using the domain private key; and transmitting the signed transaction block. Link to Full Patent

This blockchain patent was originally filed on December 21, 2015  as U.S. Patent Application 14/976331 at the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office. The application was them awarded a patent grant and published as U.S. Patent 9948467. The primary examiner was Khoi Le.

MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED, who is the original assignee of this patent, has at least 1445 total granted patents in the United States as of the date of this article. This blockchain patent has been cited 22 times by other U.S. patents according to our law firm research, and can be considered an innovative patent in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

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