Systems and methods for decreasing counterparty settlement risk

Abstract

Apparatus, systems and methods improve efficiency in transacting a swap or other futures based financial instrument, by using time-weighted index averages to decrease counterparty settlement risk. In preferred embodiments related to Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies, the swaps are based upon a time-weighted index average (Dwa) of multiple instances of difficulty (Dx to Dy) of mining the cryptocurrency over multiple time periods (Px to Py) where both Ds and Ps are available from the decentralized public blockchain. Traders can use these time-weighted index averages in conjunction with the anticipated values of Ds and Ps for the remainder of the duration of the index, to calculate the index value at any given time. The index can be used to increase or decrease mining of digital assets, or switch allocation of resources between mining different digital assets.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.