IOTA ranked #6, Bitcoin and Ethereum at the top

• Bitcoin and Ethereum occupy the first places as the most referenced cryptocurrencies with patents by enterprises.
• Newcomers such as IOTA and Polkadot have also attracted the attention of numerous companies.

World-wide there are numerous enterprises who reference cryptocurrencies in their patents. As now an investigation of IOTA archives shows, Bitcoin stands on the first position as largest and most popular cryptocurrency at the point of the ranking of the most popular cryptocurrencies and their mention in patents. However, there are other promising projects that have also been mentioned a hundred times due to their far-reaching potential.

Bitcoin and Ethereum on the top places

Among other things, IOTA Archive has investigated the absolute amount of patent references. The analyst concluded that Bitcoin was mentioned 8,806 times in the number of patent families, followed by Ethereum (4,530x), Litecoin (785x), Ripple (725x), EOS (325x) and IOTA (245x).

Adoption incoming? Businesses have a different view on what’s valuable to them than cryptocurrency investors

Judging by patents safeguarding their inventions, businesses don’t seem to care for cryptocurrencies – with very few exceptions

Same data as before, different angle: pic.twitter.com/r7cwjNXFAr

— IOTA Archive (@_iotaarchive) November 4, 2020

Furthermore, IOTA Archive has also investigated the relationship between the number of patent references and the number of days since the start of the respective cryptocurrency. The result comes to the conclusion that Bitcoin is the undisputed leader, followed by Ethereum, Polkadot, Litecoin, Ripple, EOS and IOTA.

If the ranking on the right side is significantly larger than on the left side (see following Tweet), this is an indication that companies are increasingly interested in the technology of the respective cryptocurrency. This is the case for Ethereum, Polkadot, IOTA and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, among others.

Does “age” have an influence on how often cryptocurrencies are mentioned in patents?

If the position on the right is higher than on the left, age apparently isn’t the reason but increased corporate interest

A lower rank on the right suggests the opposite: less business interest pic.twitter.com/URwtS92k3X

— IOTA Archive (@_iotaarchive) November 5, 2020

With regard to the patents on Bitcoin, the analyst further notes that they are “increasingly less specific in relation to the role of Bitcoin”. While Bitcoin was previously almost always mentioned in all DLT-related patents, the number of DLT-related patents that do not mention Bitcoin is growing rapidly, the analysis says. According to IOTA archives, Litecoin-related patents are also declining sharply:

The amount of LTC mentions in patents is highly regressive. Incorporated entities that mention LTC in patents usually only refer to it once, suggesting that LTC isn’t an integral part of the invention but rather a reference to e.g. “other cryptocurrencies”.

Although the absolute number of XRP-based patents is relatively high, there is “no trend” specifically related to XRP:

Although there are lots of patents mentioning XRP, there seems to be no trend of patented inventions becoming more specific towards XRP. Going by the overall, cumulated amount it rather seems patents mentioning XRP are becoming less specific towards it.

However, the figures and findings for IOTA and Ethereum are much more positive. According to the analyst, IOTA-related patents are “quite specific, especially when compared to other cryptocurrencies”. Moreover, “In addition, the specificity of patents with regard to IOTA as indicated by mention-count clearly increases over time”.

With regard to Ethereum, the analysis finds that newer patents show a clear upward trend in the absolute number of citations. Patents filed by incorporated entities are clearly becoming more specific towards Ethereum over time, suggesting an increase in importance of ETH’s role in the patented inventions”.