A Blockchain patent was filed by the US company Verizon for its digital media rights after three years of permanent research.
Verizon applied for it in May but no official comment has been published yet and the company declines to provide any more details yet. The patent is related to the “passcode blockchain,” according to Business Insider, which would “store a sequence of passcodes” related to users of digital content. “The DRM (digital rights management) system may maintain a list of passcodes in a passcode blockchain. The passcode blockchain may store a sequence of passcodes associated with the particular digital content and may indicate a currently valid passcode.”
It works like this. The first passcode may be assigned to a first user and designated as the valid passcode. If the access rights are transferred to a second user, a second passcode may be obtained and added to the blockchain, provided to the second user, and designated as the valid passcode. After this, the first passcode may no longer be considered valid.
At the same time, smart contracts would allow fair distribution of royalty payments, as Business Insider informs. “Furthermore, the expiration date associated with the key may continue to be in effect with respect to the second user and/or any subsequent users,” according to the patent.
Thus, if there is a rentl period for access rights for a particular digital content or any kind fo a subscription period, users may continue to transfer the rights to other users during the rental period. According to the information, Verizon has been researching the material behind the Blockchain for up to three years.
The company also has a recent history in Blockchain investment, with its venture capital branch Verizon Ventures pumping funds into decentralized IoT devices startup Filament, whose technology utilizes both Blockchain and Ethereum.
Verizon Ventures Director Ed Ruth at the time praised Filament and co-founder Eric Jennings for its disruptive angle.
“What’s so interesting about what Eric and his team are building is how the combination of end-to-end encryption with private-key crypto hardware shows great potential for generating revenue from transactions…in effect, monetizing the internet,” he wrote in a press release accompanying the investment confirmation.
Verizon’s own plans for the future using the Blockchain meanwhile remain uncertain, with the company and Ruth keeping silence on the matter.
Meanwhile, users are already able to top up their Verizon contract with Bitcoin using services such as Bitrefill, which credits funds to their account in USD following payment.
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