Verizon Communications has filed a patent for a Blockchain technology for managing passcodes.
The telecom giant, the largest in the US, filed the patent in May, according to Business Insider writer Tina Wadhwa. The technology, apparently in development for years now, would deal with the management of digital rights. According to the patent, the purpose for this application of Blockchain technology is the tracking and management of customer passcodes.
Here is a passage from the filing:
“The DRM (digital rights management) system may maintain a list of passcodes in a passcode blockchain. The passcode blockchain may store a sequence of passcodes associated with the particular digital content and may indicate a currently valid passcode. For example, a first passcode may be assigned to a first user and designated as the valid passcode. If the access rights are transferred to a second user, a second passcode may be obtained and added to the blockchain, provided to the second user, and designated as the valid passcode. Thus, the first passcode may no longer be considered valid. If the second user transfers the access rights to a third user, a third passcode may be obtained and added to the blockchain, provided to the third user, and designated as the valid passcode. Thus, the first and second passcodes may no longer be considered valid.
“Furthermore, the expiration date associated with the key may continue to be in effect with respect to the second user and/or any subsequent users. Thus, if access rights for a particular digital content are associated with a rental period, or a subscription period, users may continue to transfer the rights to other users during the rental period.”
Consumer products on the Blockchain such as film, music and news articles, could ensure that artists or authors are paid immediately once a consumer reads an article or listens to a song, with funds proportionally distributed as per contractual clauses and with lower transaction costs on a Blockchain, micro-payments would be more feasible, allowing for a pay-per-usage setup each time an article is read or a song is listened to.
