PayPal headquarters in San Jose, USA. Source: iStock/JasonDoiy

PayPal, an online payments system operator, seems to be on their way to increase the speed of cryptocurrency payments, according to a patent application released by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on March 1.

The application, named “Expedited Virtual Currency Transaction System”, details a method by which private keys - the strings of numbers and letters used to transact or otherwise control one's cryptocurrency holdings - are moved between buyer and seller behind the scenes.

The concept would significantly reduce the time it takes for payments to go through by completely dropping the process of sending a transaction and waiting for it to be included in the next block on the network. PayPal is seeking to replace this process, proposing a way to create secondary wallets with their own unique private keys for buyers and sellers. Then, the system would simply transfer private keys corresponding to the exact amount of cryptocurrency being traded.

The filing goes to explain that, “The systems and methods of the present disclosure practically eliminate the amount of time the payee must wait to be sure they will receive a virtual currency payment".

Not so long ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is also reportedly invested heavily in Bitcoin via Founders Fund, the venture capital firm he co-founded.