The travel arm of credit card company American Express (NYSE: AXP) – the American Express Travel Related Services Company - is studying the using of blockchain to increase the speed of transactions, according to a patent application released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
As described, the request for payment would be sent to the system based on blockchain, which would either be approved or rejected based on various factors, including risk analysis. If the request for payment is approved, the payment would automatically process the transaction, adjusting accounts held by both the payer and the recipient.
The patent application refers to peer-to-peer payments using a blockchain.
“A payment network based on peer-to-peer payments may be used to facilitate most functions of traditional card payment networks and to enable additional services and functionality,” the filing reads.
The company says “the payment network may also include digital wallet services deployed on user devices such as, for example, computers, tablets, smartphones, Internet of Things devices (IoT devices), etc.
“The digital wallet may enable payments by interacting with the smart contracts and the blockchain underpinning the payment network,” it said.
American Express' travel and merchant unit has earlier expressed interest in blockchain technology. In another application released last October the company discussed using a blockchain as part of a customer rewards program.