U.S. Patent 11120437 was awarded to nChain Holdings Limited on September 14, 2021 and is entitled “Registry and automated management method for blockchain-enforced smart contracts.” The first named inventor is Craig Steven Wright of London, . The abstract contains an overview of the patent disclosure:

The invention relates to the fields of tokenisation, blockchain and smart contract technologies. It provides a technical arrangement which simplifies the automated management of contracts. The invention comprises a method and system which use a computer-based repository for storage of the contract. The contract is then represented by a transaction on the blockchain. Metadata within the transaction’s script includes a hash of the contract and a means of identifying its location within the repository. The transaction also includes an unspent output (UTXO) which indicates its status as an open (ie not terminated) contract. The contract is terminated by spending the output at a later point in time, for example, using n Lock Time+Check Lock Time Verify (CLTV). By combining this concept with other techniques and computing components, the invention can provide a powerful mechanism for implementing various tasks such as renewing or rolling over the contract, or dividing it into sub-contracts or conditions. Furthermore, as the status and existence of the contract is evidence via the blockchain, this provides a permanent, publicly visible and non-alterable record of the contract. Link to Full Patent

This blockchain patent was originally filed on February 16, 2017  as U.S. Patent Application 16/078605 at the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office. The application was them awarded a patent grant and published as U.S. Patent 11120437. The assistant examiner was Chunling Ding.

nChain Holdings Limited, who is the original assignee of this patent, has at least 18 total granted patents in the United States as of the date of this article. This blockchain patent has been cited 0 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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