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Vitalik Buterin Demands Court Challenge Against New nChain Patent

Wilma Woo | Jun 26, 2018 | 23:00

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has openly criticized Blockchain research company nChain’s latest patent award, calling for opponents to challenge it in court.

Pure Invention?

nChain, whose chief scientist Craig Wright claims to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto while heavily endorsing altcoin Bitcoin Cash, received its latest European patent for what it describes as a “digital security invention.”

“This Deterministic Key Generation technique provides for improved secure communication between a pair of nodes or parties on a network, while being able to keep their private keys secret,” a press release issued June 25 claims.

nChain is attempting to create a raft of Blockchain-based tools to facilitate transactions worldwide through what it calls the “Internet of Transactions.”

The company, often via Wright as a spokesperson, continues to hit the headlines in the cryptocurrency industry for its controversial approach to marketing.

Last month, Wright told a conference audience in Rwanda that he “had more money than their country” while plugging nChain’s future plans.

‘Can’t Someone Attack It In Court?’

Reacting to the patent meanwhile, Buterin appeared unimpressed at the prospect of the company using it as a basis for innovation, appearing to argue it contained no new “invention” at all.

“This looks like they’re trying to patent plain old public master key-based deterministic wallets, like what we had in 2013,” he wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

“Can’t someone attack it in court with the obvious mountains of prior art?”

This looks like they're trying to patent plain old public master key-based deterministic wallets, like what we had in 2013. Can't someone attack it in court with the obvious mountains of prior art?

— Vitalik "Not giving away ETH" Buterin (@VitalikButerin) June 26, 2018

Buterin had previously called Wright a “fraud” for his Nakamoto claims.

Discussing its implementation, nChain claimed a hook-up with Japanese conglomerate SBI had legitimized the technology.

“We will work with select partners on projects to produce maximum benefit for the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem,” CEO Jimmy Nguyen stated, the release adding SBI and nChain were “collaborating to develop a next-generation advanced secure cryptocurrency wallet system.”

What do you think about nChain’s latest patent? Let us know in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter, Bitcoinist archives