The patent, titled ‘Blockchain Communications and Ordering’, recognises that Quant has invented a unique method for chronologically ordering transactions from different blockchains.

Having also secured a patent from the Japanese Patent Office last year, this represents another significant milestone in Quant’s ongoing mission to make distributed ledger technology simple, trusted and future-proof.

Prior to Quant’s research and development, different ‘block times’ (the average time taken to generate a new block) across blockchains meant that finding a definitive transaction ordering method over multiple blockchains, that a consortium could agree on, was a disjointed and inconsistent process. This hindered firms from integrating multi blockchain-based projects into existing systems or using more than one type of blockchain in their operations.

The grant of US patent 11842335 recognises that Quant has introduced a method to agree on a universal time zone for all blockchains, so that enterprises and smaller businesses can produce reliable, consensus-based records.

Helen Kemmitt, Quant’s general counsel, comments: “As blockchain adoption grows, patents are vital in protecting the fruits of research and development, and act as a catalyst for ongoing innovation. At Quant we view patents as a key way of solidifying our market position as a pioneer in blockchain for finance.”

Quant has a proven track record of supporting large institutions in the digitisation of financial markets, including collaborating with the Bank of England and Bank of International Settlements on Project Rosalind to explore how APIs could be used for digital currency systems. It is also making blockchain more accessible to firms of all sizes via its low-code platform, Overledger. Other elements of Overledger’s technology are also patent pending in various jurisdictions.