Blockchain System For Identity Management Patented By Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters of Mainstream media corporation was awarded a patent for a blockchain-based identity management system. This was made known by documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The patent, originally filed on December 22nd, 2015, describes a system providing identity services capable of receiving an identity from an identity provider system alongside validated identity data, and then storing it on a blockchain in an identity token.
The patent describes variations of this procedure wherein the transaction uses a smart contract, the identity data is hashed, or the access to the system used is restricted and requests authorization to access.
The document claims that a traditional identity system “presents a danger of fraud as developing technologies prove increasingly effective at counterfeiting such identities.”
Thomson Reuters, who owns the news outlet Reuters, has $8.4 billion in annual revenue.