Despite open hostility to cryptocurrencies, the MasterCard financial services giant received several patents in the field of blockchain this week. Particularly interesting is the patent, which describes the system for making anonymous transactions in blockchain.
The patent, published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), describes a system that facilitates anonymous transactions. MasterCard believes that the excessive transparency of conventional blockchain transactions prevents the adoption of this technology in daily payments. And, this applies to both business and individual consumers.
For example, someone wanted to buy an expensive gift for an important person, but at the same time does not want the recipient to be aware of the details of the transaction. In addition, companies are not interested in their competitors or third parties being able to receive such data - for example, the volume of transactions.
To solve this problem, MasterCard has developed a system that allows participate in a transaction, the details of which will be stored publicly to provide credibility, but a certain level of anonymity will remain, not allowing you to track individual transactions and transaction information that can identify its participants.
It is worth noting that the anonymity of transactions is the main feature of many cryptocurrencies, such as Monero or ZCash. MasterCard aims to achieve the same without resorting to the creation of a publicly available cryptocurrency, and to keep the possibility for law enforcement agencies to track illegal transactions, although this point is not directly addressed in the patent.
Unlike cryptocurrencies that use P2P transactions, MasterCard offers a system that will use a third-party server with a user profile database, where along with the identity there will be a string with secret data.
Thus, after the server receives information about the transaction, it hashes them and merges them with the secret value from the profile. After that, the hash is published in the blockchain to prove the integrity of the transaction, without revealing certain details.
Most recently it was reported that MasterCard is exploring the possibility of using blockchain technology to protect these cards, as well as to verify the authenticity of consumer coupons.