JP Morgan’s attempt to patent Cryptocurrency is denied

While big players in the field of payment systems like Visa and PayPal have been trying to cozy up to the concept of cryptocurrency, reports have resurfaced about US bank JP Morgan filing patent applications for a fabled bitcoin alternative.
JP Morgan declined to comment on its patent plans.
The application in question, pertaining to assignee JP Morgan Chase N.A., describes an invention that includes a “method and system for processing internet payments using the electronic funds transfer network”.
Defenders of bitcoin have been outraged at the stealth tactics of JP Morgan, which has at its disposal funds equivalent to hundreds of times bitcoin’s total capitalisation.
The fact that the JP Morgan application, filed on 5 August 2013, has been repeatedly rejected is viewed as proof the bank was hard at work trying to duplicate any useful aspects of bitcoin it could appropriate.
Hot debate was unfolded on Reddit forum about it. “There’s no way they would give up centralized control and centralized advantage. This alone ensures it cannot be innovative,” as user omgbitcoins posted.
Cryptocurrency and its related technologies will only become more important in the future, and it only makes sense that the big banks will get involved. But rather than contributing to its growth and prospering alongside the space like most other companies, the banks will likely prefer co-opting it for their own purposes.
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