American Express exploring blockchain-based solution for confirmation of payments

Popular credit card and traveller's cheque company American Express (AmEx) may introduce blockchain system to improve its confirmation of transaction process.

Last week, the US Patent and Trademark Office released a patent application which describes American Express Travel Related Services outlining the use of a "blockchain-based system" to receive "payment confirmation including a transaction amount and a merchant identifier."

As per a report by Coindesk, American Express has been looking for a faster and efficient alternative to improve its confirmation of transaction process.

The company intends to bring new alternatives to the already existing 'limited' options available for confirmation of the transaction between merchants and their customers.

Currently, "a receipt or a ticket" is the only available piece of quality evidence for a payment.

While the company is yet to disclose whether the system will be hosted on a private, public or consortium ledger, it has been speculated that a public ledger will be used to provide an additional layer of proof for transactions that take place on the company's network.

AmEx revealed that the primary intention is to track various sets of data including transaction data, proof-of-payment data, and some other desired information. The company will be using this available data to "unlock a hotel, rental or shared economy property door using the card to look up proof of payment on a blockchain.'"

This means that the system will not be limited to single use or application. In addition, users will also be able to use the system for ticketless access to venues like movie theatre and concerts.

This is not the first time that AmEx has filed a patent for improving its customer service system.

American Express has been filing a series of patents, starting from last October when it had applied for a patent related to customer rewards.