Alibaba tops blockchain patents list

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has nabbed the top spot, ahead of IBM, on a new iPR Daily list that ranks global organisations by the number of blockchain-related patents they’ve filed.

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The media outlet used data up until 10^th August from across China, the EU, America, Japan and South Korea, and also consulted the International Patent System from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Alibaba filed 90 blockchain-related patent applications and IBM was close behind with 89. In third place was Mastercard (80) followed by Bank of America (53). Next up was People’s Bank of China (PBoC), which has filed a total of 44 patent applications around its central bank digital currency project

Blockchain payments patent

In July, Coin Rivet reported that Alibaba had filed a patent for the use of blockchain technology in speeding up international payments.

The application, ‘A System and Method That Adjusts Account Balance on a Blockchain’, proposes a system that facilitates cross-border transactions directly involving third party vendors.

Alibaba is currently involved in projects in such sectors as food, healthcare and supply chain. And it recently announced that AlipayHK, a digital wallet JV between Ant Financial, of which Alibaba owns 33%, and CK Hutchison Holdings, had teamed with payment service platform GCash for the launch of a cross-border remittance service based on blockchain technology.