The retail industry continues to be a hotbed of patent innovation. Activity is driven by myriad factors including regulatory reforms and the growing importance of technologies such as crypto wallets, anonymous transaction handling, and digital rights management (DRM) tools. In the last three years alone, there have been over 156,000 patents filed and granted in the retail industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Blockchain in retail: crypto wallets. Buy the report here.

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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 115,000 patents to analyze innovation intensity for the retail industry, there are 50+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

Crypto wallets is a key innovation area in blockchain

A crypto wallet refers a program, device, physical medium, or service that stores the public and/or private keys for transactions in cryptocurrency. Additionally, a crypto wallet also offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information. Unlike a traditional wallet that holds cash, crypto wallets don’t store cryptocurrency. A customer’s digital assets live on the blockchain and can only be accessed with a private key.

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 430 companies, spanning technology vendors, established retail companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of crypto wallets.

Key players in crypto wallets – a disruptive innovation in the retail industry

‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.

Patent volumes related to crypto wallets

Company Total patents (2010 - 2022) Premium intelligence on the world's largest companies
Alibaba Group 1554 Unlock Company Profile
nChain 752 Unlock Company Profile
Advanced New Technologies 468 Unlock Company Profile
Headwater Research 200 Unlock Company Profile
Mastercard 191 Unlock Company Profile
Headwater Partners I 182 Unlock Company Profile
Visa 176 Unlock Company Profile
Capital One Financial 167 Unlock Company Profile
Cox Enterprises 126 Unlock Company Profile
International Business Machines 104 Unlock Company Profile
Broadcom 86 Unlock Company Profile
AT&T 64 Unlock Company Profile
Overstock.com 64 Unlock Company Profile
American Express 63 Unlock Company Profile
Ant Group 61 Unlock Company Profile
The Toronto-Dominion Bank 58 Unlock Company Profile
adidas 56 Unlock Company Profile
Microsoft 54 Unlock Company Profile
Bank of America 52 Unlock Company Profile
PayPal 52 Unlock Company Profile
Coinplug 51 Unlock Company Profile
Anchor Labs 50 Unlock Company Profile
Sony Group 49 Unlock Company Profile
Pendrell 46 Unlock Company Profile
Amazon.com 34 Unlock Company Profile
Inveniam Capital Partners 31 Unlock Company Profile
Technikka Conexion 31 Unlock Company Profile
Fidelio Acquisition 30 Unlock Company Profile
Walmart 29 Unlock Company Profile
Samsung Group 29 Unlock Company Profile
Digital Asset 29 Unlock Company Profile
Eluvio 28 Unlock Company Profile
Civic Technologies 26 Unlock Company Profile
TripleBlind 25 Unlock Company Profile
JPMorgan Chase 24 Unlock Company Profile
Security First 23 Unlock Company Profile
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories 23 Unlock Company Profile
Authentify 22 Unlock Company Profile
Thales 22 Unlock Company Profile
TraDove 21 Unlock Company Profile
Fiserv 20 Unlock Company Profile
BlackBerry 19 Unlock Company Profile
FMR 19 Unlock Company Profile
Payfone 18 Unlock Company Profile
Akamai Technologies 18 Unlock Company Profile
IDEMIA France 18 Unlock Company Profile
Securrency 18 Unlock Company Profile
Rokfin 18 Unlock Company Profile
NEC 17 Unlock Company Profile
Dover 17 Unlock Company Profile

Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics

Leading patent filers in the crypto wallet space are Alibaba Group, nChain, Advanced New Technologies, Headwater Research, Mastercard, Visa, and Capital One Financial. Visa has used blockchain technology to create an international digital identity system called Visa B2B Connect. This system tokenizes business data such as account details and bank details and gives them a cryptographic key identifier.

In terms of application diversity, Adidas, Technikka Conexion, Cox Enterprises, and AT&T are the leading players.

In terms of geographic reach, Headwater Research, Adidas, Headwater Partners, and Cox Enterprises are the top players.

Customers are likely to increasingly turn to crypto wallets for transactions as crypto wallets provide various advantages such as simplicity and ease of use, transaction and account confidentiality, convenient portfolio management, and access to different currencies.

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the retail industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Blockchain in Retail.

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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.