Tech Giant Sony Files Patents For Blockchain-Related Hardware
Last week, on the 2nd of August 2018, Japanese tech giant Sony had filed two patents with the the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO) that talks of two hardware devices giving a push to blockchain ecosystems. with these new offerings, Sony plans to improve the structure of blockchain hardware by introducing new design in the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
The first payment titled “Electronic Node and Method for Maintaining a Distributed Ledger” talks regarding an electronic hardware device to develop and maintain a blockchain on several electronic nodes, wherein multiple blocks are connected with at least one of the existing blocks.
The patent document notes “an electronic device for maintaining a distributed ledger…comprising circuitry configured to perform a mining process of a block to be added to the distributed ledger, wherein the mining process includes compressing data of the block to be added to the distributed ledger.”
The second patent titled “Device and System” presents a way of maintaining a blockchain using multiple virtual nodes while developing a mechanism of accessing the blockchain using any one of these nodes.
Sony explains that the use of virtual nodes will help in keeping the integrity of the blockchain network in tact at times where “where the number of devices is small or becomes small,” in case where the number of devices went down.
Both these parents complement each other as the first talks of a device accessing the DLT while the other talks about maintaining it. Sony’s association with the field of blockchain is nothing new. Last year, the tech giant filed a patent for a blockchain-based multi-factor authentication system (MFA) wherein the company proposed of having two different ledger networks for conducting the login process.
The company also partnered with tech giant IBM for developing a blockchain-powered educational platform while facilitating easy sharing of student records. Few months back in April, Sony also proposed the idea of Digital Rights Storage using the blockchain technology for a variety of content including music, TV shows, games, medical data and other forms of digital content.