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US 10,504,178 B2Granted
System for physically delivering virtual currencies
AssigneeChicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.
InventorsRyan Pierce, Sandra Ro, Mansoor Ahmed
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are disclosed for settling futures contracts that are based on virtual currencies. A clearing counter-party operates a clearing counter-party computer that may oversee physical delivery of virtual currency between a buyer and seller. The clearing counter-party computer does not take possession of the virtual currency and monitors a publically viewable ledger to confirm that transactions have taken place.
Claims25
A system that reduces risk and permits a clearing counter-party computer to ensure delivery without taking actual possession of virtual currency transacted via a publicly viewable electronic ledger, comprising:
- a buyer computer corresponding to a buyer of a virtual currency futures contract;
- a seller computer corresponding to a seller of a virtual currency futures contract;
- the clearing counter-party computer separate from the buyer and seller computers and from the publicly viewable electronic ledger and containing a computer-readable medium that contains computer-executable instructions that cause the clearing counter-party computer to perform the steps comprising:
- (a) determine when at least one futures contract that calls for the physical delivery of a virtual currency expires;
- (b) when the at least one futures contract expires, pair off buyers and sellers for delivery purposes;
- (c) receive a virtual currency address from the buyer computer;
- (d) transmit transfer instructions to the seller computer to transfer the virtual currency to be physically delivered to the received virtual currency address via the publicly viewable electronic ledger;
- and
- (e) accessing the publicly viewable electronic ledger to confirm that the seller transferred the virtual currency to be physically delivered to the buyer.
6 more elements
A system comprising:
- a buyer computer corresponding to a buyer of a virtual currency futures contract;
- multiple seller computers each corresponding to a seller of a virtual currency futures contract;
- a clearing counter-party computer separate from the buyer and seller computers and from a publicly viewable electronic ledger via which the virtual currency is transacted and containing a computer-readable medium that contains computer-executable instructions that cause the clearing counter-party computer to perform the steps comprising:
- (a) determine when at least one futures contract that calls for the physical delivery of a virtual currency expires;
- (b) when the at least one futures contract expires, pair off a buyer with multiple sellers for delivery purposes;
- (c) receive from the buyer computer a unique virtual currency address for use by each of the multiple seller computers;
- (d) transmit to each of the multiple seller computers transfer instructions that include one of the unique virtual currency addresses to transfer the virtual currency to be physically delivered to the received virtual currency address via the publicly viewable electronic ledger;
- and
- (e) accessing the publicly viewable electronic ledger to confirm that each of the sellers transferred the virtual currency to be physically delivered to the buyer.
6 more elements
A computer implemented method comprising:
- (a) determining, by a clearing counter-party computer separate from a publicly viewable electronic ledger via which a virtual currency is transacted, when at least one futures contract that calls for the physical delivery of the virtual currency expires;
- (b) when the at least one futures contract expires, pairing off buyers and sellers for delivery purposes;
- (c) receiving from a buyer computer, separate from the clearing counter-party computer, corresponding to a buyer of a virtual currency futures contract a virtual currency address;
- (d) transmitting to a seller computer, separate from the clearing counter-party computer, corresponding to a seller of a virtual currency futures contract transfer instructions to transfer the virtual currency to be physically delivered to the received virtual currency address via the publicly viewable electronic ledger;
- and
- (e) accessing, by a clearing counter-party computer, a the publicly viewable electronic ledger to confirm that the seller transferred virtual currency to be physically delivered to the buyer.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.