Derivative contracts that settle based on transaction data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10949922-B2
Application number	US-201615199131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Jun 30, 2016
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

The disclosed systems and methods make derivatives contracts based on an underlying virtual currency available for trading. Certain derivatives contracts have a settlement value based on the transaction fees associated with recording and/or performing transactions for the selected virtual currency. The contracts can be used, for example, by virtual currency miners against certain risks associated with mining virtual currency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer system for monitoring transaction processing network utilization and associated transaction processing times in a financial computer system, the computer system comprising:
an order book module that determines bid and offer prices for one or more financial instruments;
a match engine that matches bids and offers for the one or more financial instruments;
a trade database that stores trade information; and
a clearinghouse computer comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed cause the processor to:
(a) receive, via a virtual currency network of the financial computer system, transaction data for a plurality of transactions for a virtual currency processed by the virtual currency network and stored on a blockchain, the transaction data including transaction inputs and transaction outputs;
(b) determine a network utilization of the virtual currency network, the network utilization being determined based on the received transaction data, wherein the network utilization is indicative of a transaction processing time for each of the plurality of transactions, wherein an increase in the network utilization is indicative of an increase in the transaction processing time and a reduction in a capacity of the virtual currency network to process transactions and a decrease in the network utilization is indicative of a decrease in the transaction processing time and an increase in the capacity of the virtual currency network to process transactions;
(c) determine first transaction differences for the plurality of transactions for a period of time based on a difference between a sum of all transaction inputs and a sum of all corresponding transaction outputs associated with each transaction of the plurality of transactions, wherein each of the first transaction differences is related to a value for an amount a miner who successfully validated and added a block to the blockchain is allowed to keep as a reward for adding the block to the blockchain, wherein the first transaction differences are related to the network utilization, wherein as the network utilization increases, the first transaction differences increase and as the network utilization decreases, the first transaction differences decrease;
(d) determine a second transaction difference for a new transaction to be submitted in the financial computer system based on the network utilization;
(e) determine a value of a financial instrument based on an average of the first transaction differences over the period of time per a specified unit of data size as compared to the second transaction difference;
(f) generate a minimum requirement for one or more participants based at least partially on the value of the financial instrument;
(g) determine whether an amount of funds on an account with the clearinghouse computer for a participant of the one or more participants is below or exceeds the minimum requirement; and
(h) one of credit or debit the account of the participant based on the determination that the amount of funds on the account is below or exceeds the minimum requirement.

2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the financial instrument comprises a futures contract.

3. The computer system of claim 2 , wherein the value of the financial instrument comprises a cash settlement value of the futures contract.

4. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual currency is a cryptocurrency.

5. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the first transaction differences are at least one of: (i) adjustable and (ii) varying over time.

6. A computer implemented method for monitoring transaction processing network utilization and associated transaction processing times in a financial computer system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a processor via a network of the financial computer system, the processor coupled with a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing computer executable instructions executed by the processor, transaction data for a plurality of transactions, the transaction data including transaction inputs and transaction outputs;
determining, by the processor, a network utilization of the network, the network utilization being determined based on the received transaction data, wherein the network utilization is indicative of a transaction processing time for each of the plurality of transactions, wherein an increase in the network utilization is indicative of an increase in the transaction processing time and a reduction in a capacity of the network to process transactions and a decrease in the network utilization is indicative of a decrease in the transaction processing time and an increase in the capacity of the network to process transactions;
determining, by the processor, first transaction differences for the plurality of transactions based on a difference between a sum of all transaction inputs and a sum of all corresponding transaction outputs associated with each transaction of the plurality of transactions, wherein each of the first transaction differences relate to a value for an amount a miner who successfully validated and added a block to a blockchain is allowed to keep as a reward for adding the block to the blockchain;
determining, by the processor, a second transaction difference for a new transaction to be submitted in the financial computer system based on the network utilization;
determining, by the processor, a first value of a financial instrument based on the transaction differences for a period of time as compared to the second transaction difference;
generating, by the processor, a minimum requirement for one or more participants based at least partially on the first value of the financial instrument;
determining, by the processor, whether an amount of funds on an account with a clearinghouse computer for a participant of the one or more participants is below or exceeds the minimum requirement; and
one of crediting or debiting, by the processor, the account of the participant based on the determination that the amount of funds on the account is below or exceeds the minimum requirement.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein determining the first value of the financial instrument based on the first transaction differences includes further determining a second value of the financial instrument based on an average of the first transaction differences over a contract period.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein determining the first value of the financial instrument based on the first transaction differences includes further determining a second value of the financial instrument based on an average of the first transaction differences per a specified unit of data size over a contract period.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the financial instrument comprises a futures contract.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the first value of the financial instrument comprises a cash settlement value of the futures contract.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the transaction data comprises data for virtual currency transactions and wherein the network comprises a virtual currency network.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the virtual currency is a cryptocurrency.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the transaction differences are at least one of: (i) adjustable and (ii) varying over time.

Assignees

• Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc

Inventors

• Pierce Ryan
• Ahmed Mansoor
• Plante John

Classifications

• G06Q2220/00

  Business processing using cryptography · CPC title

• G06Q20/381

  Currency conversion · CPC title

• G06Q40/04 Primary

  Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange · CPC title

• G06Q50/18

  Legal services · CPC title

• G06Q20/065

  using e-cash · CPC title