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US 11,538,105 B2Granted
Cryptographic-asset collateral management
AssigneeBlock, Inc.
InventorJacqueline Reses
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided is a process, including for lending, with a smart contract executable by a decentralized computing platform, money to a borrower. The process includes securing, with the smart contract, the loan by obtaining control of cryptocurrency of the borrower and monitoring, via the smart contract, whether the cryptocurrency satisfies a loan-to-value threshold. In response to the monitoring, an amount of cryptocurrency secured with the loan can be adjusted.
Claims20
A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, effectuate operations to manage blockchain-based collateral securing debt, the operations comprising:
- receiving, by a payment service and from an application executing on a device associating with a user, a request to secure a debt with a security interest in cryptocurrency;
- obtaining, by the payment service, a value of collateral in cryptocurrency required to secure the debt;
- causing, by the payment service, a smart contract associated with a blockchain to designate a first amount of cryptographic tokens of the cryptocurrency as being controlled by the payment service to serve as collateral in a record of the blockchain to secure the debt by transferring the first amount of cryptographic tokens of the cryptocurrency from a first account of the user to a second account of the user, wherein:
- the first account of the user and the second account of the user each correspond to a different respective cryptographic key pair of an asymmetric encryption algorithm, each cryptographic key pair having a respective public cryptographic key and a respective private cryptographic key corresponding to the respective public cryptographic key,
- proof of access to a private cryptographic key is required to transfer assets from corresponding accounts, and
- the user is not provided access to the private cryptographic key of the second account of the user before at least some of the debt is repaid;
- determining, by the payment service and based on an update to state of the smart contract, that the first amount of cryptographic tokens designated as collateral in the blockchain has a value less than the value of collateral required to secure the debt;
- determining, by the payment service or the smart contract, a second amount of cryptocurrency required to exceed or match the value of collateral required to secure the debt;
- based on the determination, causing, by the payment service, the smart contract to designate, in the blockchain, the second amount of cryptographic tokens of the cryptocurrency as being controlled by the payment service to serve as collateral, so as to cause an adjustment of control of the second amount of cryptographic tokens by the payment service in the blockchain and counteract a decrease in value of the cryptocurrency;
- and
- in response to determining that at least some of the debt is repaid, providing, to the user, access to the private cryptographic key of the second account of the user.
8 more elements
A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, effectuate operations comprising:
- obtaining, with one or more processors, parameters of a secured obligation, the parameters including an obligee, an obligor, an amount of an obligation of the obligor to the obligee denominated in a first unit of account, and a type of cryptographic asset to secure the obligation, wherein the type of cryptographic asset changes in value over time relative to the first unit of account;
- and
- causing, with one or more processors:
- a first set of the type of cryptographic asset to be placed under control of the obligee in a distributed computing platform by transferring the first set of the type of cryptographic asset from a first account of the obligor to a second account of the obligor by causing data with which the control is effectuated to be rendered tamper evident by a directed acyclic graph of cryptographic hash pointers, wherein:
- the first account of the obligor and the second account of the obligor each correspond to a different respective cryptographic key pair of an asymmetric encryption algorithm, each cryptographic key pair having a respective public cryptographic key and a respective private cryptographic key corresponding to the respective public cryptographic key,
- the distributed computing platform requires account holders to demonstrate proof of access to private cryptographic keys to transfer assets from corresponding accounts, and
- the obligor is not provided access to the private cryptographic key of the second account of the obligor before at least some of the secured obligation is satisfied;
- after the first set of the type of cryptographic asset is placed under control of the obligee, an updated value of the first set of the type of cryptographic asset to be obtained;
- a determination to be made, based on the updated value, that the first set of the type of cryptographic asset has insufficient value to secure the obligation;
- and
- responsive to the determination, a second set of the type of cryptographic asset to be placed under control of the obligee in the distributed computing platform by transferring the second set of the type of cryptographic asset from a first account of the obligor to the second account of the obligor by causing data with which the control of the second set is effectuated to be rendered tamper evident by the directed acyclic graph of cryptographic hash pointers.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.