IBM Flexing Muscles

IBM is fast becoming a blockchain giant, with over 100 active patents in the United States at the moment. The large number of applications goes to show how much the industry is expected to grow and the potential in it.

Yuval Halevi, cofounder of GuerillaBuzz has collected information and saidIBM is on the top when it comes to patents for decentralized ledger technologies,

With such a high number of the patents, IBM throws every other tech company out of the water. Other market leaders such as Intel, Dell and even Microsoft do not even come close.

On the other hand, rising economies and tech industries of the east are fast catching up. In the international arena, China leads blockchain patents. When looking at the patents in the United States, Alibaba has only 25. Yet, within patent applications in China, Alibaba has a total of 262.

China also leads globally with more than 4300 blockchain related patents filed between 2013 and 2018. Patents filed in the United States during the same period were roughly 1830.

Patents to Reality

Such a high number of patents filed by IBM also reflect the intense interest in the technology and use by the company. IBM has started several blockchain based projects. Bicycles are a major transport vehicle in the Netherlands and with rising thefts, IBM has introduced a blockchain based theft reporting measure.

Big names such as Volkswagen are also utilizing blockchain platforms developed by IBM. In this case, the vehicle manufacturer is using it for tracking of ethically sourced minerals for their batteries. Other major blockchain uses include partnership with Seagate to fight counterfeit hard disksand helping Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to launch blockchain based supply chain.