Processing Bitcoin Payments Is Now As Easy As Dropping a Text, says Intuit

With bitcoin’s emergence around nine years ago, a staggering number of patents have been filed with regard to the digital currency. Some peg the approximate number somewhere around 2,000. The latest patent relating to Bitcoin, that has been granted, would ensure the simplification of the method of processing bitcoin payments. A patent has been granted to Intuit by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which will allow them to process bitcoin payments via a text.

Intuit is a business and financial software company which is based out of California. The patent was first filed by them in 2014. The patent concerns transactions of Bitcoin and it explains how two users can transfer funds using mobile phones via the use of virtual accounts. The application states:

The invention relates to a method for processing payment. The method includes receiving, by a payment service from a payer mobile device of a payer, a payment text message comprising a payment amount and an identifier of a payee mobile device.

For those concerned with the authenticity of texts, the application explains that there will be several methods to verify the texts. For example, in order to process the payment, one method would require the payment to be sent with “a password request associated with an account of the user.” Another method makes use of voicemail, “a voice phone call [that] is automatically disconnected by the payment service without answering.” This would enable verification of credible texts and would help in differentiating them from “random message or spam message sent by a machine.”

Back in 2014, shortly before Intuit filed the patent, the company had launched their QuickBooks Bitcoin Payments service. It is a bitcoin transaction processor that would allow businesses to accept bitcoins in exchange of fiat currencies. Since then, they have been trying to develop their payments platform and make it more advanced.