Winklevoss brothers file new patent for securely storing digital assets

The Winklevoss brothers, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of crypto exchange 'Gemini', have secured a patent for a cold storage method. The patent is involved with air-gapped computers, geographically remote vaults, plastic cards, and papyrus.

The patent has been filed under the firm Winklevoss IP, LLC and published by the US Patent and Trademark Office. It outlines a plan to develop a network of computers capable of generating accounts for storing cryptocurrencies or cryptocurrency-related exchange-traded products (ETPs), as reported by Coindesk.

The patent suggests different ways of storage. If there are several sets, some may be stored on paper, some on papyrus but at least one set of keys should be stored on an electronic memory device.

The keys may be delivered to a key storage company through different mediums like, personally, via mail, via fax, or may be created at the secure storage site. For access to the storage, the owners of the keys should provide three forms of identification.

The computers would generate these keys for new accounts, which would be segmented into parts and written onto an external memory device, such as a flash drive, CD, DVD or written down physically onto a laminated card, sheet of paper, piece of plastic or papyrus.

The computers would be isolated, like a cold storage device except during transfer of assets and would have access to a secure portal, which may connect the machines to the blockchain network during transactions, if required.

According to the patent, protecting asset keys is important for blockchains to prevent theft of funds and since digital asset ledgers are used to facilitate financial transactions, securing them will enable the systems to operate properly and prevent double-spend attacks.