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China Union Pay seeks patent for blockchain-based ATM networking method

August 31, 2017

China Union Pay has developed a blockchain-based solution for networking ATMs and has now filed a patent application for the process with the People's Republic of China State Intellectual Property Office, according to numerous news outlets.

Translated from Chinese, the documents are more-than-usually murky for a patent application, but the gist seems to be this: 

Chinese patent application No. CN200910039733.5, "a secure ATM system and method of operation," is a robust blockchain-art ATM network system and processing method based on a distributed ATM network architecture. The ATM service node and the encrypted transaction information for all ATM transactions are maintained in a reliable distributed ATM transaction database, which maintains a chronological record that cannot be tampered with. 

Servers can be used as a direct monitoring node for the separate ATM nodes, synchronizing all of the information to facilitate aggregated transaction information. Hashing algorithms and asymmetric encryption algorithms ensure the security of transaction information. The distributed database solves the problem of the potential inability of an ATM to communicate with a server that may not be operating normally, resulting in lost data.

As yet, CUP has not indicated whether it actually intends to implement its blockchain method.