Cloud computing giant Red Hat is trying to exploit a blockchain-based system to track software usage.
New marketing models for selling software on a cloud platform require new methods of tracking usage and a blockchain may be able to efficiently store this information, according to a patent application released last Thursday by the patent office and US brands. The filing outlines how a blockchain should track transactions across a given platform, where each transaction represents an instance of a customer who uses the company's products.
As the application explains, "software products have often been granted on an annual basis, a predetermined commission is paid and the commission allows the use of the software product for a year."
However, software products are likely to be licensed based on time or usage count. As a result, "commissions are therefore based on a number of uses of a software product and / or over a total period of time in which the software product has been used, over a given period of time".
The application goes on to say:
"The examples record, in a blockchain, a billing rule transaction that identifies the usage rules for one or more types of software instances over a period of time, including authorized transactions that identify software instances that have been authorized to execute during the period of time they are registered in the blockchain. "
"Because blockages in the blockchain, for practical purposes, can not be subsequently modified until a sufficiently robust consent method is used to create the blocks, the blockchain accurately records both the actual use of the software instance and the rules in which the use occurred "the application continued.
This type of system could help sellers monitor use on different networks without requiring the customer to build a new infrastructure to enable tracking, saving time and money on both sides, he noted the application.
Red Hat image via JPstock / Shutterstock
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