Intuit awarded patent for text-based Bitcoin payments

US-based software company, Intuit, has been granted a patent that describes a method whereby Bitcoin payments can be processed using text messages.

The patent, originally filed on 13th June 2014, describes technologies that facilitate the transfer of Bitcoin directly between two mobile devices. A peer-to-peer network would store the funds of each user, enabling users to receive funds via instantly-created accounts on the network.

“The method includes receiving, by a payment service from a payer mobile device of a payer, a payment text message comprising a payment amount and an identifier of a payee mobile device of a payee, validating the payment text message based at least on a payer balance of a virtual payer account maintained by the payment service for the payer, creating, by a computer processor of the payment service and in response to the payment text message, a virtual payee account based on the identifier of the payee mobile device,” the filing states.

Payments would be validated in a number of ways, including a password request and an unanswered voice phone call, which would be matched to the identifier of the mobile device.

The patent was awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office to Manu Chikkanna, an Intuit employee who invented the system. It comes after Intuit launched a PayByCoin plug-in on its cloud-based accounting software, QuickBooks Online, which lets small businesses accept Bitcoin instead of fiat.