Walmart Files Patent Application for Blockchain-Based Drone Communications

The American commerce giant Walmart filed for a patentapplication for a drone communication system entitled “Cloning Drones Using Blockchain” in January 2019. The United States Patent and Trademark Office published the patent on August 1.  

Blockchain technology is utilized to transmit information such as drone identification numbers, flight speeds, flight routes to other drones.   

The filing outlines a system that allows information being transmitted from a drone that encrypts and stores the operational parameters to another that decrypts and configures to those parameters.  

The patent explains the benefit of blockchain technology used for these drones:  

"A blockchain ledger may store any kind of information that may be stored in any other format or medium, for example, a large list of instructions of different types, navigational information, and maps. In such a way, a same software profile may be deployed across the cloned drones."

Walmart has been showing increasing interest in blockchain technology as earlier this month; a patent was filed proposing a digital currency similar to Facebook’s Libra.