American tech giant Microsoft has been awarded a U.S patent for techniques, for implementing a cross-chain token management system, to help users develop blockchain applications by making it easier and more efficient to create crypto tokens for different distributed ledgers.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted the patent to Microsoft’s subsidiary, Microsoft Technology Licensing. According to the patent, creating and managing tokens is currently “difficult and cumbersome” due to the lack of standardization across different blockchains.
Microsoft filed for the patent in February 2019. It described a “ledger-independent token service,” or a software service enabling individuals and organizations to create and manage tokens across multiple distributed ledger networks and platforms.
Firms included in the patent filing included major blockchain platform Ethereum, IBM-backed Hyperledger Fabric, JPMorgan’s enterprise blockchain platform Quorum, R3 Corda and Chain Core.
The described computer system offers templates with various attributes and control functions. Those would depend on the type of token required, representing, for example, a digital or physical asset. Once the user has selected the desired template, the system creates the token on the designated networks. The system also provides a common interface for managing the tokens, so developers don’t have to worry about token-specific code to interact with them.
According to the patent’s authors, the described system “makes development more efficient for emerging business use-cases that involve crossing ledger boundaries.”
Microsoft has been actively involved in blockchain-related development in recent years, filing a wide number of patent applications related to the cryptocurrency industry. Last year, the tech giant filed a patent for a cryptocurrency system enabling individuals to mine crypto using their body activity data, in an effort to remove the need for specialized mining devices.
Microsoft is listed on the NASDAQ exchange and it is currently trading at $299.12, up 37.41% Year-to-Date (YtD) as of the time of this writing.
