Bank of America has filed for or received more blockchain-related patents in the US than any other firm, beating out Mastercard and IBM for the top spot, according to research from law firm EnvisionIP.
EnvisonIP dug around to find 1045 US patents related to the blockchain industry that have been received or are pending but published, with the financial industry dominating the top ten.
Top of the pile is Bank of America, with 43 patents, followed by Mastercard and IBM with 27 each and Fidelity with 14. Other big FS firms on the list include TD Bank with 11, Visa with seven and Nasdaq with five.
However, the FS industry still only accounts for 20% of all patents in the field, with blockchain-related startups making up 59%, led by Coinbase, which has 13, and Gideon Samid, the CTO of BitMint, who has eight.
Traditional technology firms own approximately 13% of the patents, with Accenture and Dell busy in the field. However, EnvisionIP says that "surprisingly" Google, Oracle, Microsoft, and Facebook do not appear active.
A mix of patent holding companies, consulting, gaming and entertainment firms, and retailers collectively own eight per cent. WalMart has one.