Nasdaq, the stock market operator, has filed a patent for a computer system for the secure release of time-sensitive information using blockchain.

The patent, titled ‘Systems and Methods for Securing and Disseminating Time Sensitive Information Using a Blockchain’ was submitted in January 2017.

The application states that the system would allow a user to submit a time-sensitive document to an authority who can make edits before sharing it with a third party for approval. Each change to the original document would be recorded on blockchain.

The purposed system gives each user a public identifier and a private key.

The Nasdaq document states:

“Access to the sensitive information stored on the Blockchain may include a multi-signature requirement that is part of the embedded scripts that make up a given Blockchain transaction.”

Previous patents

This is not Nasdaq’s first foray into the world of blockchain. In March 2016, the company filed another blockchain related patent, this time as a way to securely store exchange transaction records.

The system would be use digital wallets, an order book and a closed blockchain in order to record and update transactions in real-time.

The patent outlines the process:

“A match is identified between data transaction requests and hashes associated with the digital wallets associated with the respective data transaction requests are generated. The counterparties receive the hashes of the other party along with information on the match and each party causes blockchain transactions to be added to the blockchain of the blockchain computing system.”

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