Bank of America seems to be aspiring to live up to its "life's better when we're connected" slogan, as it was awarded a patent that lays out a system for customers to store cryptocurrency in an account held with a financial enterprise.
The patent, which was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on November 13, outlines several reasons why this might be valuable. Customers get increased security by storing their cryptocurrencies "in a cryptocurrency vault that is eventually taken offline." Furthermore, the manner in which it is done can lead to lower electricity consumption.
In order to hold a customer's cryptocurrency, a business would store the deposit in its own account. The patent explains: "The enterprise may decide to collect and aggregate cryptocurrency deposited by customers into a cryptocurrency account owned by the enterprise where the aggregated cryptocurrency may be securely stored."
The patent also describes the way in which a customer will be able to make payments with the crypto funds in their account, using a "payment instrument issued by the enterprise" associated with their cryptocurrency:
"To execute a transaction with cryptocurrency, an enterprise may receive a request from a customer using a payment instrument authorizing a payment of an amount of cryptocurrency. Essentially simultaneously or shortly thereafter, the enterprise may transfer the among of cryptocurrency from a customer account to a recipient of the payment."
