According to a US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) application published on 6 October, Nasdaq has filed a patent for a method of using blockchain technology to secure records of exchange transactions.

Titled “Systems and methods of blockchain transaction recordation", the application is attributed to Tom Fay, Nasdaq’s senior vice president of enterprise architecture, and Dominick Paniscotti, associate vice president for enterprise architecture.

The application describes an exchange system consisting of digital wallets, an order book and matching engine, with a "closed blockchain" utilized as a record of transactions that is updated in real-time, CoinDesk reported. It states:

“A match is identified between data transaction requests and hashes associated with the digital wallets associated with the respective data transaction requests are generated. The counterparties receive the hashes of the other party along with information on the match and each party causes blockchain transactions to be added to the blockchain of the blockchain computing system. The computing system then monitors the blockchain to determine if both sides of the match has been added to the blockchain”.

The system described in the application provides for improvements in verifying electronic transactions of a distributed database (e.g. a distributed ledger) in a distributed computer system environment or blockchain, it said. The application said that the proof-of-work process performed by nodes of a blockchain computer system allow transactions to be cryptographically verified and become immutable. In addition, the system described may also improve the speed at which transactions may be validated to settled.

Last year, Nasdaq unveiled Linq – a digital ledger technology powered by blockchain that facilitates the issuance, cataloging and recording of transfers of shares of privately-held companies on The NASDAQ Private Market. In December 2015, it announced that an issuer was able to use its Nasdaq Linq blockchain ledger technology to successfully complete and record a private securities transaction - the first of its kind using blockchain technology.