TD Bank is Going To Use Public Blockchain To Track Transactions

TD Bank has outlined in a patent application how it could use a public distributed ledger to help point-of-sale computers track transactions.

In the presented scheme, computers would create data blocks in which information about the already sold assets, their cost in a given digital currency and the transactions themselves would be stored. The patent was completed in September 2016. Still it is not clear if the bank has pursued the idea further than the application. It is a notable indication of interest, as big bank blockchain work has generally been confined to private or permissioned ledgers.

The created document offers ample praise for public blockchain ledgers, in which any individual, who has started to run the software may successfully approve transaction deals. Moreover, such a ledger would allow anyone to verify that a transaction occurred, while using a decentralized platform increases redundancy, thereby “minimizing risk of falsification of ledgers”.

Also the patent comments on the slower speed of such a unique system, suggesting TD Bank to become more accustomed to the attributes of blockchain systems that have been treated by other institutions as drawbacks, the online publication concludes.