NASDAQ Patents A New Blockchain Based NewsWire Service

The Nasdaq Stock Market, which is an American stock exchange, has successfully patented a system which would release news as part of a wire service and would run on blockchain technology.

Nasdaq, which is the second-largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, had applied for this patent long back. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released the patent which outlines a system which would use blockchain to release information in real time as and when necessary.

The current practice by wire, newswire, news release or other digital distribution services is to share news and information on a pre decided time to specific news outlets. In order to change this, this new system could use smart contracts to ensure a feature of encryption and workflow that would allow distribution of this news in real time, while maintaining a log for the same, which would be transparent.

The current system has flaws like the information shared can leave patent notes which may leave gaps in the audit trails and some of these platforms may not be easy to audit at all.

The document explains that

“new and improved techniques and systems for delivering and securing such time-sensitive information are continually sought after”

A system like this could make sure that news about events happening around the world can be circulated in real time. Along with that, important time-sensitive information could be shared with appropriate receipients.

The smart contracts that have been added to the blockchain, according to the document, will allow the sharing of information directly to the intended recipients at a pre-set time and the log that will be maintained is going to be almost impossible to change or tamper ensuring greater transparency.

The patent further adds,

“Access to the sensitive information that is stored on the blockchain may include a multi-signature requirement that is part of the embedded scripts that make up a given blockchain transaction”

“The intended recipients of the information may then directly interface with the blockchain at the scheduled time … to access information that has been securely stored.”