Mastercard Files Patent for Blockchain-Based Payment Verification Technology

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced a patent application from Mastercard for a system and method that uses blockchain technology for payment card verification at the point-of-scale (PoS). Mastercard filed this patent in December 2016.

This move is aimed at addressing card skimming and will entangle retrieval of payment credentials from a third party source through a publicly accessible blockchain.

Using private and public keys, the two-way process will involve storage of an encrypted payment card image on a computing device.

A private key will be applied by the system to fully cross-check the payment information and decrypt the card image when carrying out a transaction.

Mastercard hopes that the retrieval of payment credentials and technical solution for sending to and at a PoS device via third party data source will abrogate the requirement for making a payment instrument hence increasing and tightening security.

A statement by Mastercard's application indicates that the use of a third party data source facilitates an individual to carryout a transaction safely without any chance for their payment credentials being skimmed from their payment instrument, or without having to even carry a payment instrument completely.

It further indicates that the transaction can be conducted through the spectacle of a machine-readable code to the point of sale device that may encourage the prevention of skimming as the reading of such a code can be highly and easily controlled through the control of the underlying display. The display can be properly and easily protected, and is usually mysterious when in a pocket or purse.