The Asia/Pacific division of financial services giant Mastercard has filed a patent for a shared device billing system that mentions the use of blockchains and IOTA’s Tangle protocol.
According to a patent titled “Method and System for Device Micropayment Aggregation on Tangle Network,” Mastercard has outlined a new billing system intended for shared devices, including printers, photocopiers and other hardware.
Mastercard’s proposal involves the use of a transparent “data storage system” with a device controller and aggregator node controlling the input and output transactions from a hardware device. The financial services company points out the inefficiency of current billing systems that rely upon prepaid accounts, which often lead to users over-paying for the usage they need.
The new patent proposes managing transactions and data storage from devices on IOTA’s Tangle protocol, allowing users to pay the exact amount for the service they need. Mastercard also highlighted the patent’s transparency “ensures that no user is taken advantage of,” with clients able to monitor their usage. The patent mentions the service will be open to third-party auditing of payment records.
While the patent does not mention the cryptocurrency mIOTA or whether the new billing system will be an app on IOTA’s network, it does feature Tangle as a practical design for the service. The filing also mentions that other blockchains could be used for achieving transparent data storage in transactions.
