Overstock.com’s blockchain subsidiary tZERO has just announced that they have secured a U.S. patent for their market platform. As per the patent, the system will sign transactional items cryptographically.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently published a new patent that was claimed by tZERO. tZERO is the blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com and is responsible for both the company’s portfolio and also its own trading platform.

The patent was made for tZERO’s “Crypto Integration Platform” which has the capacity to take market data from a variety of sources and algorithmically determine the optimal price.

A Platform for Verifying Digital Ownership

The patent outlines the use for the platform which will be utilized to verify digital ownership. As the document explains:

“The Crypto Integration Platform provides, among other things, an interface between legacy trading systems and crypto exchanges that trade digital transactional items.”

It goes on to state:

“Crypto Integration Platform takes a protocol for trading and communication between broker-dealers, Alternative Trading Systems (“ATS”), and exchanges, and transforms the message so that the trade can be consummated using cryptographic techniques.”

tZERO will also be able to conduct its own initial public offerings (IPO) through this platform along with other public security offerings. However, the hallmark of the system is combining legacy trading systems with new crypto trading systems. Through the use of proper private and public keys, the tZERO platform will work to connect the old financial markets with the new, blockchain-based world.

About tZERO

The blockchain-based subsidiary of Overstock.com, tZERO held their own security token offering in October. Handling Overstock’s portfolio, the subsidiary has also expanded into stable coins and tokenized securities. This past December, it announced that it would be a releasing a cobalt-backed security token.

What do you think of tZERO’s patent? Should the platform be open source? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image courtesy of tZERO.