SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF IMPLEMENTING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY FOR SUBSTANTIATING ELECTRONIC ASSETS

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for substantiating electronic assets managed by a blockchain network. In an exemplary aspect, a method comprises creating two nodes communicatively linked in a blockchain network, wherein at least one of the two nodes generates a block, linked to a genesis block of a blockchain, that generates a maximum possible amount of electronic assets that a memory cell of the at least one of the two nodes is capable to store. The method comprises ceasing further generation of the electronic assets by terminating the two nodes, wherein termination deletes keys used to generate the electronic assets. The method comprises transferring a substantiated portion of the electronic assets from a pre-issuance storage device to an issuance storage device and tracking on the blockchain, via a settlement blockchain network, orders made by the client devices in relation to the substantiated portion of the electronic assets.

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Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/633,734 and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/355,426, filed on Jun. 28, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present invention generally relates to blockchain systems and, in particular, to systems and methods for implementing a blockchain system for substantiating electronic assets, as well as to methods for maintaining sufficiency of a reserve of assets that substantiates an electronic assets.

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, the so-called “idea of private money” which is embodied through a phenomenon of electronic currency (in particular, cryptocurrency) exchange becomes increasingly popular. Circulating in the USA and multiple other countries, Bitcoin cryptocurrency and other similar cryptocurrencies began a new era in economics. The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and skyrocketing of development of technical solutions related to them are explained, primarily, by the following advantages of those cryptocurrencies:

    • 1) ensuring a high level of safety of funds and control over expenditures of those,
    • 2) ensuring safety of transactions,
    • 3) impossibility of unauthorized withdrawals of funds,
    • 4) relatively fast and low-cost way to transfer value achieved due to bypassing intermediaries and the costs and delays associated with using them, especially compared to traditional value transfer mechanisms, such as credit and debit cards, checks, and bank transfers (wire, ACH, SEPA, etc.). Except for direct (hand-to-hand) money transfers, transfers of fiat currency and other assets require validation, accounting, and/or processing by two or more financial institutions.

At the same time, current methods and systems for implementing cryptocurrencies suffer from a number of disadvantages, including but not limited to:

    • 1) Cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology guarantee anonymity of parties to transactions, frequently triggering inquiries by financial or tax regulatory authorities of countries.
    • 2) Issuance of cryptocurrencies is decentralized and thus as a rule is not subject to regulation.
    • 3) Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile compared to other stores of value because, unlike other assets, cryptocurrency has no underlying value, be it a relationship to a nation's economy (fiat currency), an earnings stream (stocks and bonds), or value to end consumers (commodities).

Currently, the advantages of cryptocurrency are significantly overshadowed by its volatility. The volatility problem may possibly lead to expenditures eventually exceeding banking fees when transferring funds in cryptocurrencies is carried out. Sellers accepting payments in cryptocurrency may, as a result of unpredictable and quick fluctuations of its rate, lose funds of a value exceeding the fees charged by the companies emitting and servicing credit cards in official currencies. Because of that, cryptocurrencies are not so widely used as a means of payment in relation to real products and services (foods, transport, clothing, etc.) or other property. The problem of volatility characteristic of cryptocurrencies has not yet been properly solved, and there is a necessity in developing systems and methods aimed at magnifying the positive effect of using cryptocurrencies in economy and trade before cryptocurrencies become operated in mass market between buyers, sellers and banks.

As noted above, the high volatility of cryptocurrencies is a consequence of their not being backed (substantiated) by a real valuable. However, this disadvantage is to a certain extent characteristic of not solely cryptocurrencies, but also state currencies including world reserve currencies which have by now strayed from a “gold standard”.

The problem of lacking substantiation of currencies is considered particularly serious during economic instability periods and may lead to economic crises during which significant population groups suffer involuntary losses in the form of profit lost due to a fall in the national currency exchange rate. Historically, gold was used as a means of substantiating currencies during a long period of time. Nowadays it is commonly thought that gold-backing has had its day due to the Copernicus-Gresham's law.

The classical problem stated in the Copernicus-Gresham's law became an invincible obstacle in historical attempts to introduce a gold standard as currency substantiation. About 500 years ago, a Polish astronomer, economist and mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus and an English financier Thomas Gresham formulated an economic law: “When a government overvalues one type of money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear from circulation into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation.” The “undervalued” money is such whose “inner” value exceeds its nominal one or one of the circulating “overvalued” money of an equal nominal value.

For example, some country introduces a gold standard (“undervalued” money). Let us take China with gold yuan equal to 1 g of gold as an example. For instance, there are 100 t of gold backing of this money. The issuance is limited by the gold stock amount the amount of issued yuan is equivalent to the amount of grams in 100 t.

In the market, there also is non-backed fiat (“overvalued”) money. Its issuance is not anyhow limited. In such event, the states issuing fiat (“overvalued”) money carry out a special issuance for buying out gold yuan, buy it out and afterwards present it to the issuer, thus acquiring the whole gold reserve of 100 tons. Thus the “undervalued” gold-backed (substantiated) money leaves the country or disappears from circulation into hoards, while the “overvalued” fiat money floods into circulation.” The “overvalued” money buys out the “undervalued” money.

That is, a gold-backed (substantiated) currency may be bought out for non-backed (fiat) currencies because the latter do not have limits on issuance.

The experience of the Genoa and Bretton Woods currency systems is considered an argument for failure of gold-backed currencies. They were destroyed by shortage of gold which became insufficient for substantiating currencies used for international settlements.

With a view to this, it is common to state that limitedness of gold leads to impossibility of creating a global gold-backed currency for international finances whose circulation grows faster than the gold mining industry of the planet.

An alternative to gold-backing was described by James Turk. In his U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,983,207; 7,143,062 and others, there is described a system where gold itself plays a role of a currency, i.e. gold remaining a commodity and an asset is used as a payment means at the same time. However, the system described by Turk suffers from several substantial disadvantages, including: (1) An ability of withdrawing physical gold from the system may cause a collapse of the system in event of a boost of demand for gold; (2) Restrictions on gold circulation set by states' governments may complicate carrying out operations in the system; and (3) Remaining a commodity, gold, as part of deals, is subject to taxation, which causes circulation-related expenditures upon purchasing and selling gold. In short, the “currency” offered by Turk is not, in fact, a currency.

Systems for reducing risks related to volatility of cryptocurrencies are considered in U.S. Patent Application Publication. No. 2015/0332256, filed by Halsey Minor. Minor describes a multi-currency system of payments and conversion. However, this system does not regulate aspects of cryptocurrency issuance, and does not therefore solve the problem of absence of their backing (substantiation). This is a fight with the consequence and not with the reason of the volatility problem. Furthermore, Minor's system has at least one serious disadvantage: users have to carry out a great number of transactions, continually converting different types of currencies into one another in order to, on one hand, use cryptocurrencies and their advantages and on the other, avoid the currency risks related thereto. At the same time, they still face such risks, although to a lesser extent.

As a result, there exists a need in the art for new methods and systems that solve the problem of cryptocurrencies' volatility, as well as the deficiencies identified above.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides systems and methods for generation and issuance of a fully functional electronic currency free from many of the disadvantages characteristic of existing cryptocurrencies. Excessive volatility is overcome with the help of an effective mechanism of provision, close to a “gold standard”. Volatility lowers to a level of volatility of gold (or another type of valuable asset, for example, a commodity or an intangible asset chosen as backing (substantiation)).

The present invention illustrates that substantiated currencies whose issuance mechanism is not connected to creating debt, may (despite common myths), be operable and develop not facing a problem of shortage of gold-backing.

In selected aspects, the invention provides a stable low-volatile electronic currency. This is not a commodity but an obligation as well as a fiat currency. However, at the same time, it is 100% substantiated by (or linked to) a real valuable (asset) and not a subject to any risk.

In addition, selected aspects of the invention solve the problem of protecting issue of substantiated (“undervalued”) money from being bought out for fiat (“overvalued”) money, via creating not a fixed-amount substantiating reserve of valuables (for example, a gold reserve) but one of amount changing depending on the demand for the substantiated money (in the form of the offered cryptocurrency). According to these aspects, in the event of a purchase of electronic currency for fiat currency in the system, there happens a purchase of substantiating valuables (for example, gold) and thus the system's gold reserve grows. In the event of withdrawal of money from the system by selling electronic currency, the client specifies the amount thereof corresponding to a certain amount of the substantiating valuable (in particular, gold), the specified amount of that valuable is withdrawn from the reserve and sold at the market price, and the client receives fiat currency at its rate at the moment of selling.

In the disclosed system, which is linked to gold, there is no emerging problem of gold shortage because the amount of substantiating gold stock changes in strict compliance with clients' orders for purchasing and selling currency. Almost instantaneous speed of carrying out transactions, achieved as well with help of an innovative reserving mechanism based on application of a certain mathematical model, allows to substantially lower the necessity in turnover gold.

Technical and organizational solutions used in Copernicus Gold, the project embodying this disclosure, ensure high circulation speed, safety, low cost and integration with existing financial institutions.

In the future, among the system's users one may see not only individuals and legal entities but state institutions of the countries interested in a stable alternative to the financial system existing nowadays.

The disclosed system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency has the potential of resurrecting the “gold standard” in international settlements.

In some exemplary aspects of the disclosure, a computer-based payment system for carrying out electronic settlements using electronic currency substantiated by a reserve of assets comprises a management module, executable by a computer processor, configured to create and manage one or more wallets of electronic currency for a system operator and a plurality of clients, execute electronic currency payment transactions by transferring electronic currency between one or more wallets of the system operator and/or a plurality of clients and recording information about the executed transactions in a private blockchain-based settlement network, manage information about the reserve of assets substantiating the electronic currency and control in real-time purchase or sale of assets on an external market in an amount required to fully substantiate the issued electronic currency at each moment of time; and an issuance center, executable by a computer processor, configured to receive in real-time information from the management module concerning an amount of the reserve of assets substantiating the electronic currency, perform centralized generation and controlled issuance of the electronic currency into circulation, wherein the generation of all the electronic currency is performed in a single block by creating this block in a blockchain using a mining operation that generates a maximum possible amount of the electronic currency, and wherein the generated electronic currency is issued into circulation in an amount equal to or less than the amount of the reserve of assets substantiating it, when the amount of the reserve of assets reaches a threshold amount, calculate, by the computer processor, in real-time, an amount of assets to be sold or purchased on the external market in order to fully substantiate the issued electronic currency based on a set of mathematical functions that account for distributions of moments of time of receiving from the clients orders for purchasing or selling of electronic currency using a fiat currency and size of the received orders, and transmit to the management module an order to purchase or sell the calculated amount of assets, on the external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency at each moment of time.

In one exemplary aspect, the electronic currency is a cryptocurrency.

In one exemplary aspect a unit of counting the electronic currency is accepted as equivalent to an amount of gold.

In one exemplary aspect the management module of the payment system is further configured to connect to at least one secure vault for storing some or all of the gold reserve.

In one exemplary aspect the management module is further configured to connect to at least one broker that carries out operations of purchasing or selling of gold on the external market.

In one exemplary aspect, a set of mathematical functions applied within the system's work accounts for the distributions of moments of time are defined by Poisson streams and are combined into a single Poisson stream in which the order type is defined randomly, and the size of the orders for the purchase or sale of the electronic currency is defined by a logarithmically normal distribution, such that a positive amount value is assigned to orders for selling electronic currency and a negative amount value for orders for purchasing electronic currency.

In some exemplary aspects, a computer-implemented method for generation and issuance of a blockchain-based electronic currency in a payment system of its circulation comprises generating the electronic currency, by a computer of an issuance center, by creating a first block in a blockchain using a mining operation that generates a maximum possible amount of the electronic currency for the system; creating a pre-issuance wallet by the computer of the issuance center; transferring, by the computer of the issuance center, all of the generated electronic currency to the pre-issuance wallet; copying, by the computer of the issuance center, the blockchain into a settlement network, that operates in at least one data center; creating, by the computer of the issuance center, an issuance wallet within the issuance center; checking, by the computer of the issuance center, whether at least a portion of the generated electronic currency is substantiated by tangible or intangible assets contained in a reserve of an operator of the system; performing, by the computer of the issuance center, primary issuance of a substantiated portion of electronic currency by transferring a portion of the generated electronic currency, from the pre-issuance wallet to the issuance wallet within the issuance center, wherein the amount of the transferred portion of the electronic currency corresponds to the amount of the tangible or intangible assets contained in the reserve; making the issued electronic currency available for purchase by the clients of the system and further circulation; and in response to a payment from a client, transferring a portion of the electronic currency from the issuance wallet of the operator to a client wallet, wherein the issuance wallet and the respective client wallet are communicatively linked by the settlement network.

In one exemplary aspect, the method uses a private blockchain.

In one exemplary aspect, the electronic currency is generated by the issuance center using a proof-of-work algorithm.

In one exemplary aspect, concerning the method for generation and issuance of a blockchain-based electronic currency, the settlement network comprises a geographically distributed network, that operates in at least two communicatively linked nodes, placed in different data centers, wherein all the nodes operating the settlement network are controlled by the operator of the system.

In one exemplary aspect, the settlement network is configured such that at least two nodes are available to facilitate transactions with the electronic currency at all times.

In one exemplary aspect, computer-based method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency, comprises continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling the electronic currency; when the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency; and initiating, by the processor, purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, from or to an external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency; wherein the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from the external market at given time t, Gsell*(t) and Gbuy*(t), respectively, are calculated based upon the following formulas: Gbuy*(t)=α·Gbuy′(t)+(1−α) Gbuy″(t), and Gsell*(t)=α·Gsell′(t)+(1−α) Gsell″(t); where α∈[0,1], “Gbuy*(t)” is the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be purchased from the external market; and “Gsell*(t)” is the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at the external market.

In one exemplary aspect, the variables Gbuy*(t) and Gsell*(t) are rounded to a value of Ĝbuy*(t) and Ĝsell*(t), respectively, which are each divisible by the fixed purchased/sold amount of the tangible or intangible asset (A).

In one exemplary aspect, prior to calculating the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from the external market at given time t, Gsell*(t) and Gbuy*(t) respectively, the optimal parameters Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α are defined to satisfy the following conditions: (i) Kmin=min{K: P(K)≤P0}, (ii) Exmin=min{Ex(Kmin, Trend, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α)}.

In one exemplary aspect, with help of the mathematical model of maintaining the reserve balance for the electronic currency purchasing/selling operations of the clients of the system, managing parameters K(Mi), Gmin(Mi), Gbuy(Mi), Gmax(Mi), Gsell(Mi), α(Mi) are calculated for every variant Mi∈.

In one exemplary aspect, monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve includes calculating with the help of a mathematical model the following parameters: gpir(t), g(t), g*(t), G(t), cpir(t), c(t), for moments t=tk, (k=1, 2, . . . ).

In one exemplary aspect, a method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency in a system wherein the electronic currency circulates together with a plurality of fiat currencies, comprises: continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling electronic currency for each of the plurality of fiat currencies; when the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, for each of the plurality of fiat currencies an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency; and initiating, by the processor, purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, from or to an external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of the reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency; wherein an amount of capital required to carry out the purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve (K), is calculated based upon the following formulas:

K _ = i = 1 N ( K i - ( G min i - G min ι _ ) ) == i = 1 N K i - i = 1 N ( G min i - G min ι _ ) = K - i = 1 N ( G min i - ( β · Δ + ( 1 - β ) · G min i ) ) == K - i = 1 N β ( G min i - Δ ) ;

In one exemplary aspect, a computer-based method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency in a system wherein the electronic currency circulates together with a plurality of fiat currencies, comprises: continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling electronic currency for each of the plurality of fiat currencies; when the amount of value of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, for each of the plurality of fiat currencies an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency; and initiating, by the processor, purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, from or to an external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency; wherein a minimum amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve necessary to fully substantiate the electronic currency, (Gmin), is calculated based upon the following formulas:

G min _ = i = 1 N G min ι _ = i = 1 N ( β · Δ + ( 1 - β ) · G min i ) ;

and if β>0 then Gmin<Gmin.

In one exemplary aspect, a computer-based method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency, comprises: continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling the electronic currency; when the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency; and initiating, by the processor, purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, from or to an external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency; wherein the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from the external market at given time t, represented by Gsell′(t) and Gbuy′(t), respectively, are calculated based upon the following formulas:


Gbuy′(t)=|α(t)|·ofbuy(t)+Gbuy(t)·(1−ofbuy(t))·Gbuy;


Gsell′(t)=α(tofsell(t)+Gsell(t)·(1−ofsell(t))·Gsell;

In one exemplary aspect, a computer-based method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency, comprises: continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling the electronic currency; when the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency; and initiating, by the processor, purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, from or to an external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency; wherein the amount of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from the external market at given time t, represented by Gsell″(t) and Gbuy″(t), respectively, are calculated based upon the following formulas:


Gbuy′(t)=Gbuy(t)·(|a(t)|·(1−ofbuy(tg(t)−gpir(t)+Gmin+Gbuy)++ofbuy(t)·|a(t)|;


and


Gsell″(t)=Gsell(t)·(a(t)·(1−ofsell(t))+g(t)+gpir(t)−Gmax+Gsell)++ofsell(ta(t);

In one exemplary aspect, a computer-based method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency, the method comprises: continuously monitoring, by a processor, a sufficiency of the reserve based on a stream of orders for purchasing or selling the electronic currency; when the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve reaches a threshold amount, calculating, by the processor, an amount of a portion of the tangible or intangible assets to be sold at or purchased from an external market in order to fully substantiate the electronic currency, wherein the calculating step is based upon a mathematical model that accounts for distributions of moments of time of receiving orders for purchasing or selling the electronic currency substantiated by tangible or intangible assets and the amount of purchase or sale of the orders; and initiating, by the processor, the purchasing or selling of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets in the reserve, to or from the external market, to maintain a sufficient amount of the reserve to fully substantiate the electronic currency.

In one exemplary aspect, the distributions of moments of time of receiving orders for purchasing/selling the electronic currency are defined by Poisson streams and are combined in one where the order type is defined randomly, and the amount of the purchase or sale of electronic currency is defined by a logarithmically normal distribution, such that a positive amount value is assigned to orders for selling and a negative amount value for orders for purchasing.

In one exemplary aspect, the calculation is based upon a mathematical model that accounts for at least a plurality of the following parameters: a time required for purchasing or selling an asset in the reserve in the external market for or from the reserve; a cost of 1 unit of the asset being purchased or sold; a fixed purchased/sold amount (FPSA) of the asset, which could be purchased/sold in the external market, optionally accounting for a low commission fee; a cost of storing 1 unit of the asset for a unit of time; a rate, recalculated into a unit of time, at which the funds could be allocated; a commission fee which the operator for purchasing/selling a unit of the asset in the reserve is charged with, recalculated as for purchasing/selling 1 unit of the asset; and a commission fee which a client for the operation of purchasing/selling the asset-linked electronic currency is charged with by the operator, recalculated as for purchasing/selling 1 unit of the asset.

In one exemplary aspect, the amount of tangible or intangible assets in the reserve is increased or decreased based on a level of demand for the substantiated electronic currency.

In one exemplary aspect, the purchasing of the portion of the tangible assets or intangible assets is initiated upon a purchase of the electronic currency, by a client, resulting in an increase of the substantiating reserve; and the selling of the portion of the tangible assets is initiated upon the selling of said electronic currency in a quantity equivalent to value of a certain amount of a substantiating asset, by a client, resulting in the sale of the portion of the tangible or intangible assets at a market price, wherein the client receives fiat currency from the sale at the market price.

In one exemplary aspect, the method further comprises forming free reserves by creating and maintaining reserve stocks both in assets used as a substantiation and in at least one traditional currency (fiat currency), stored on the operator's bank account.

In one exemplary aspect, the amount of assets in the free assets reserve corresponds to Δ-fixed purchased/sold amount (FPSA) of asset, which means the fixed amount of asset, which could be purchased/sold in the external market with low commission; the amount of fiat currency in the free fiat currency reserve corresponds to a market cost of FPSA of asset.

In one exemplary aspect, the total value of the free reserves is not less than a market cost of FPSA of assets.

In one exemplary aspect, a majority of current purchases and sales of the electronic currency are carried out by the operator using the electronic currency in the operator's wallet and at least one fiat currency from the operator's free fiat currency reserve.

In one exemplary aspect, if the electronic currency in the operator's wallet and the fiat currency in the operator's free fiat currency reserve are insufficient for carrying out an operation of purchasing or selling electronic currency, the given operation is transferred to an offline mode and carried out without participation of the operator's resources, wherein the offline mode includes the operator carrying out an operation of purchasing electronic currency substantiation in the external market, issuing the electronic currency for the purchased amount of substantiation, or an operation of selling substantiation in the external market, and the result of the operation carried out is transferred to the wallet of the purchaser or to the wallet or bank account of the seller of the electronic currency.

In one exemplary aspect, the operator of the reserve of assets carries out operations of: (i) purchasing substantiation of the electronic currency in the external market, issuing electronic currency for the purchased amount of substantiation, transferring that electronic currency to the operator's electronic currency wallet; and (ii) operations of selling substantiation in the external market and transferring a profit from the sale to the operator's fiat currency wallet or bank account; wherein the operations of purchasing or selling substantiation in the external market are initiated upon reaching the threshold amounts of substantiation of electronic currency, which are defined by a calculation, at the same time that the amounts of purchased/sold substantiation are defined by a calculation.

In one exemplary aspect, the amounts of purchased or sold tangible and intangible assets are rounded to a value divisible by a fixed purchased/sold amount of asset, and wherein the free assets reserve is maintained at a threshold amount not less than the fixed purchased/sold amount of asset, as measured based on a combination of the value of the tangible or intangible assets and one or more currency equivalents; wherein: if there is a decrease of the amount of the tangible or intangible assets in the free assets reserve to a level lower than the threshold amount and a purchase order for the electronic currency is received, all purchasing operations are transferred to the offline mode; and if there is a decrease of the amount of the fiat currency in the free fiat currency reserve to a level lower than the threshold amount and an order to sell the electronic currency is received, all selling operations are transferred to the offline mode.

The above simplified summary of exemplary aspects serves to provide a basic understanding of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description of the disclosure that follows. To the accomplishment of the foregoing, the one or more aspects of the disclosure include the features described and particularly pointed out in the claims. Moreover, it is understood that the individual limitations of elements of any of the disclosed methods, systems and software products may be combined to generate still further aspects without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure and the inventive concepts described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more example aspects of the present disclosure and together with the detailed description, serve to explain their principles and implementations.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency according to one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating one method of operation of the system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency according to an exemplary aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating another method of operation of the system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency according to an alternative aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency according to an alternative aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process of generating electronic currency at the stage of the system's launch and its issuance into the system according to one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary structure of funds and reserves of a substantiated electronic currency payment system (mono-currency variant) in one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a general-purpose computer system on which the disclosed systems and methods can be implemented (e.g., the system of FIG. 1).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following definitions are provided as an aid to understanding the detailed description and claims of the present invention. The definitions apply throughout the specification and claims, except in any instances where one of ordinary skill would readily appreciate that the context clearly dictates otherwise.

Electronic currency—a conventional expression of value, having or not having a certain amount of a real valuable (money, precious metals, commodities, other assets) as an equivalent and accepted as a payment means in electronic settlement systems.

Cryptocurrency—an electronic currency whose issuance and circulation is carried out with use of cryptotechnologies (e.g., blockchain technology).

Mining—(in the context of blockchain technology)—an action of maintaining a distributed network and creating new blocks. In existing systems built on the principles of blockchain technology, the process of generating cryptocurrency is connected to mining; currency units are created and paid as a reward for creating new blocks in the system.

Operator—in the context of the present disclosure, an entity taking control over issuance of electronic currency and/or functioning of the system of its circulation, including managing formation of a necessary reserve amount. An Operator may be any economic or legal entity or any individual.

Issuing center—the department of the system, real or virtual (program module), responsible for issuance of electronic currency into circulation and forming the reserves which substantiate the electronic currency.

Primary issuance—the initial issuance of electronic currency to the Operator's wallet for the substantiation provided by the Operator, carried out before launching the system.

Further issuance—the issuance of electronic currency carried out during the process of the system's operation, in event of necessity to satisfy the demand for electronic currency on the basis of orders of the clients (users of the system).

Operator's wallet—a virtual storage (a device for storing electronic data) which is used for accounting the valuables belonging to the system's Operator.

Client's wallet—a virtual storage (a device for storing electronic data) which is used for accounting the valuables belonging to a client (a user of the system).

Transaction—a fact of transferring a certain amount of a valuable—tangible or intangible asset, e.g. gold, electronic currency, a certain commodity or rights of ownership of some property or intellectual property—recorded in the system's database (e.g., with the help of blockchain technology).

Settlement network—a system of recording transactions between the Operator and the system's clients, as well as the clients' transactions carried out between each other. In a preferred aspect of the invention, the settlement network is a distributed one operating on the basis of blockchain technology.

Data center—a server center of a distributed settlement network, functioning as a storage of virtual data of transactions carried out in the system.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the example aspects as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or like items.

Disclosed herein are system and methods for issuance and circulation of electronic currency, as well as a payment system based on use of the aforementioned electronic currency. In one exemplary aspect, the electronic currency is a cryptocurrency that is 100% substantiated by an tangible or intangible valuable (asset). One unit of the electronic currency according to the present invention corresponds to a certain amount of assets accepted as a substantiation means for the given currency. In one exemplary aspect, gold may be used as the substantiation means of the currency. For example, one unit of the currency may correspond to 1 gram of gold.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer-based system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency according to one aspect of the present invention. Generally, the system comprises of a core 1, which includes a management module 2 and a settlement network 3, and a currency issuance center 4. The system may also include a plurality of client applications 5 and a back-office module 6. The system may interact with external partners 7, such as a secure vault for assets storage, brokers (commodity and/or currency ones), and/or a bank.

In various example aspects, the depicted components of the system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency may be implemented on a single computer system (such as a general-purpose computer system depicted in FIG. 7). In another example aspect, the components of the system may be implemented on a plurality of different computer systems located in the same local area or wide area network. Yet in another example aspect, the components of the system may be implemented on a plurality of different computer systems located in different geographically or logically distributed computers networks. In one exemplary aspect, the system may be operated and controlled by a single Operator (such as a bank, a financial organization, a commercial company, or even a government or a state-sponsored authority), which initiates and controls issuance of electronic currency. In alternative aspects, different components of the system may be operated by different entities.

In one exemplary aspect, the issuance center 4 performs the issuance of the electronic currency under the control of the Operator. For security purposes, the issuance center 4 may be isolated from the Internet either completely, e.g. being offline, or partly via, e.g., a firewall (the center “sees” the network, yet there is no access to it from the network), or located directly in the network. In one exemplary aspect, the management module 2 may be implemented as a centralized system that provides service layer and application programming interfaces (APIs) for storing data about the system's users and their accounts, and controlling work of the settlement system, as well as accepting transactions from users.

In one exemplary aspect, the settlement network 3 may be a decentralized network of computers carrying out transactions and storing the data about them.

In one exemplary aspect, the settlement network 3 may be built on the basis of blockchain technology (e.g., private blockchain) different from known blockchain technologies used for functioning of other known cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin cryptocurrency). In exemplary aspect, the system of the present invention uses closed technology, in which all the mining is carried out on the Operator's devices. All the centers of settlement networks may be in constant synchronization with each other and are located in different data-centers, forming geographically distributed systems and thus guaranteeing fault-tolerance and safety of data. At the same time, in the disclosed system (unlike in Bitcoin), no reward is paid for mining. The process of generating electronic currency in the present system is not connected with creating new blocks in process of the system's operation. All the amount of the electronic currency (electronic cash) allocated for circulation in the system, according to the present invention, is generated upon creation of the first block before the system's launch and is transferred to the pre-issuance wallet of the Operator. At the stage of the system's launch a portion of electronic currency that is substantiated by the reserves provided by the Operator is transferred from the pre-issuance wallet to the issuance wallet of the Operator (primary issuance), and from then on, that issued electronic currency can be sold to clients of the system and creating new blocks does not incur creation of new currency units. This gives the Operator of the system an ability to control all the amount of the generated currency and use this generated currency located in the pre-issuance wallet for further issuance into the system at any time the Operator prefers.

The suggested innovative mining mechanism allows for the following advantages:

1) since mining in the system is not connected with electronic currency generation, there is no economic benefit for the nodes that mine new blocks, there is no need for the nodes of the settlement network to compete in calculation speed (unlike Bitcoin system), so the hash calculation work used for mining procedure need not to be of very high level of difficulty. This provides for very high speed of mining and consequently for very high speed of executing transactions in the system;
2) since mining in the system is relevantly easy, it does not impose using computers and servers of extremely high calculating capacity, so significant saving of energy is provided while using the system;
3) non-profitable mining makes it economically useless to break the network by introduction of unauthorized nodes into the network, that is an additional factor for system's safety along with its centralized structure.

In various aspects, every user of the system, including individuals and legal entities and also the Operator itself, may have one or several wallets (accounts) which store keys letting to get access to the amounts of assets which belong to the given users. Access to the wallets may additionally be controlled by entering a special password (PIN-code), optionally with the help of a tool for multi-factor authentication (mostly USSD), so that operating a wallet without participation of its owner is absolutely impossible.

In addition, the system may include a plurality of client applications 5 (such as for example, web-applications, mobile applications, USSD-applications and others), and the back-office module 6, which gives access to analytical information about the level of liquidity in the system, and also, together with the system management module 2 ensures connection of the system with external partners 7 and their informational systems.

In various aspects, external partners 7 may comprise one or more of the following:

    • 1) at least one secure vault for assets storage where there is located a reserve of valuables (preferably, gold), substantiating the currency,
    • 2) an entity entitled to trade on an appropriate stock exchange (a broker),
    • 3) an entity entitled to carry out operations in the currency market (a currency broker),
    • 4) in event the Operator itself is not a bank, the Bank through which there are carried out operations of purchasing and selling electronic currency between the Operator and the system's users with use of traditional payment means circulating in the banking system (for example, bank cards, bank transfers). Also, settlements are carried out through the Bank in traditional currencies with the aforementioned brokers.

In the event of use of fiat currencies as a valuable, their storage location may be the Operator's bank account.

In one exemplary aspect, the system allows its clients to create their own valuable and facilitates management of issuance of that valuable via the management module 2 and the issuance center 4. At the same time, for circulation of this valuable, a special settlement network 3 may be automatically created in the system. However, in such event, if there is physical substantiation of the valuable created and issued by the client, it is stored outside the system and is totally controlled by the issuer itself. In this aspect, in instances where one of the system's clients is the issuer of any kind of electronic valuables, the task of purchasing substantiating assets for those valuables from an appropriate broker (if necessary) is carried out by that issuer itself, in that case the issuance center of the system does not anyhow control the reserve of assets substantiating that valuable but only informs of the amount of electronic liquidity issued by the client, available in the system.

Launching the System

In one exemplary aspect, at the stage of launching the system, the primary issuance of electronic currency is performed. It is carried out corresponding to the initial reserve of assets, for example, a gold reserve. The initial reserve is formed by the Operator itself at its own expense.

In a preferred aspect, all the amount of the virtual currency issued by the Operator for circulation is not less than 100% substantiated by a reserve of assets (for example, physical gold). The substantiation reserve, in case of gold, is formed of bullions of a certain weight, and because insufficient substantiation is unacceptable, it leads to excessive substantiation.

For example, if the bullions of gold are 1 kg of weight each, in case of receiving an order for purchasing electronic currency corresponding to 10 g of gold the Operator must purchase 1 kg of gold for maintaining the necessary reserve amount, leaving 990 g of a free reserve for executing further orders.

By gold substantiation, the Operator at any time guarantees purchasing virtual currency from the payment system's client for an amount expressed in a traditional payment means, equal to the value of gold in correspondence to the current physical gold market conditions and active Operator's tariffs.

At the initial moment, with help of the preliminary mining procedure, the issuance center 4 creates an amount of electronic valuables maximally possible for circulation in the settlement network 3 and locates it in a special pre-issuance wallet stored in the issuance center 4. The blockchain base used for carrying out the given pre-issuance procedure may be used for establishing a settlement network 3 (by copying). After purchasing the initial amount of a valuable (for example, gold) from the broker by the Operator, the issuance center 4 carries out primary issuance of electronic currency in correspondence with the purchased amount of the valuable. The issued electronic currency is transferred to the Operator's wallet in the settlement network 3 (the issuance wallet) and becomes available for sale to the end user.

Thus the virtual currency, prior to being sold to the payment system's clients, is initially issued to the Operator's wallets.

Selling virtual currency to clients is carried out from the reserves of virtual currency on the Operator's wallets upon the Operator's reception of a confirmation of the client's money receipt (or further guaranteed receipt, for example, in case of a client's payment by a bank card or other non-instantaneous ways of payment) to the Operator's bank account. Settlements in the system may be carried out in Singaporean dollars, US dollars, euros, Japanese yens and some other currencies.

Operation of the Computer-Based System

As described above with reference to FIG. 1, the system consists of the following main components: the core 1 (the settlement network 3 and the management module 2), the issuance center 4, the client applications 5 and the back-office module 6.

The core 1 is a closed part of the system, access to which is given solely to authorized employees of the Operator for maintaining continuous functioning of the system.

The client applications 5 of the system gives the client access to its wallets and to services via the USSD-service, web-interface, mobile application and also other client applications of the system developed with use of the open API.

The back-office module 6 of the system gives the Operator's employees access to information and functionality similar to the client applications 5, without enabling to manage clients' wallets. In case a client of the Operator is itself an issuer of a certain valuable it also uses the back-office module 6 to manage parameters of that valuable (for example, the rate of exchange for other valuables or the fee for carrying out operations with the valuables).

In one exemplary aspect, all settlements are carried out in settlement networks 3 which are part of the system's core. In settlement networks 3, there are circulating:

    • the electronic currency (valuable) purchased by clients and/or belonging to them;
    • the electronic currency (valuable) belonging to the Operator and used by it to satisfy the current demand (stored on the issuance wallets of the Operator, thus forming a free reserve of electronic currency);
    • traditional types of currencies used by clients for storing funds and settlements.
    • traditional types of currencies belonging to the Operator and used by it to satisfy the current negative demand, i.e. orders for selling electronic currency (stored on the fiat currency wallets of the Operator, thus forming free reserves of fiat currencies).

In event the system allows issuance of own valuables by clients, such valuables are also circulating in settlement networks 3, a special own settlement network 3 may be created automatically for every such valuable. The ability to circulate traditional currencies in the system allows it to function as a fully-functional payment system.

A client (be it an individual or a legal entity), interacting with the settlement network 3 via the client network as a registered user, has a technical ability to open one or more wallets in the system, for storage and use of other valuables (fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, bonus conventional units) in settlements with other users; said valuables are inserted into the system by the client itself or provided by the Operator or other valuables issuers registered in the system as clients.

For example, some clients—e.g., a legal entity—may register in the system its own electronic currency backed, for example, by barrels of oil and the system will provide users with an ability to open accounts (wallets) in the given electronic currency and then purchase it at the rates set by the issuer of the given valuable.

Access to the System

An individual gets access to the system upon completion of the registration procedure. An organization gets access to the system via its authorized entities that must be registered in the system as individuals. The stages of gaining access for an organization:

    • registration and identification of authorized entities as individuals;
    • provision of information about the organization;
    • identification of the organization.

In the system, it is allowed to carry out operations by not fully authorized users (for example, upon specifying only a mobile phone number when registering) in terms of the limits set by the regulator of the jurisdiction which the Operator works under.

In general, the offered system strays from the principle of settlement anonymity, which allows to restrict use of the system for carrying out illegal operations.

After registration, every user of the system may open one or several wallets (accounts) in a preferred valuable or currency (for example, gold, usual fiat currencies), including the valuables which are registered by other users of the system managing issuance of that valuable themselves. Access to wallets is at all times controlled by a password (PIN-code) which a client enters via USSD (or another protected channel for double-factor authentication), thus impossibility of unauthorized access to wallets is guaranteed.

Control Over Reserve Formation

In one exemplary aspect, the issuance center 4 repeatedly analyzes the balance of the valuables reserve (e.g., the amount of gold) which is owned by the Operator and disposed in a specialized storage, and on the basis of the offered method of management of the reserve transfers an order for purchase of the necessary amount of a valuable to the broker via the back-office module. Upon completion of purchasing of the valuable by the broker, the issuance center 4 carries out additional (further) issuance which is also transferred to the settlement network 3. The issuance center 4 detects the stream of users' orders and in case the total amount of orders for purchase of electronic currency exceeds the volume of the issued currency, a request for purchase of backing (substantiating) reserve valuables from a broker is automatically formed, at the same time the service of orders for purchase of electronic currency of the volume exceeding the issued one is ceased until the moment of confirmation of purchasing gold and carrying out further issuance.

In one exemplary aspect, the volume of the virtual currency reserves necessary for successful functioning of the system may be defined on the basis of a mathematical model calculating the dynamics of the demand for the virtual currency, as illustrated by the examples provided below. In some aspects, if during the continuous monitoring of sufficiency of reserves with help of the mathematical model the system detects that received orders of purchase of an amount of electronic currency exceed the amount of the reserves on the Operator's wallets, at first the amount of gold calculated with the help of the mathematical model is purchased, after which further issuance of virtual currency is carried out and the issued currency is transferred to the client's wallet. This approach guarantees rigorous observance of the principle of 100% backing of the virtual currency by physical gold.

Under real market conditions it is not always possible to buy physical gold instantaneously. Particular obstacles appear during weekends. Although they may be somewhat mitigated by purchasing gold in different time zones, this is not about immediacy. Besides, there are commission fees charged upon purchasing and selling physical gold at the stock exchange. On top of that, such commission fees depend on the bullion's weight. They may fluctuate from 0.25% for bullions of several kilograms and be tens of times higher for small bullions weighing tens or hundreds of grams. This is why it is preferable to purchase gold bullions weighing not less than 1 kg (i.e., to reduce commission fees).

To ensure low commission fees and online execution of orders for gold-backed (substantiated) currency owned by the Operator, in some aspects there must exist free gold reserve. The mathematical model provided herein allow one to define the minimal amount of free gold ensuring 24/7 supplement of the gold reserve.

Thus, in selected aspects, methods of managing reserves are disclosed, including methods of forming free reserves by creating reserve stocks both in gold (or other valuable used as a substantiation) and in at least one traditional currency (fiat currency), stored on the Operator's bank account.

In order to ensure 24/7 operation of the system of electronic currency circulation in the online mode, current purchases and sales of electronic currency may be carried out with use of the electronic currency on the Operator's wallets substantiated by free gold and at least one traditional (fiat) currency from the Operator's free fiat currency reserve.

The issued electronic currency accounted on the Operator's wallets in the system (free electronic currency which is always backed by free gold reserve) and free reserves of traditional currencies owned by the Operator and stored on its bank accounts form the Operator's capital, in various aspects.

In the event of a purchase of electronic currency in the system, with use of the Operator's capital, the electronic currency may be provided immediately from the Operator's free reserve at the rate active at the moment of purchase and is transferred to the purchaser's wallet, and the amount of funds in the form of a fiat currency is transferred to the Operator's bank account. In the event of a selling of electronic currency in the system, the electronic currency may be transferred to the Operator's wallet, increasing its free reserve of electronic currency, and the amount in a fiat currency may be transferred to the seller's bank account (including bank card account) or, in case the system is the one of a multi-currency variant, to the seller's wallet in the corresponding fiat currency at the rate active at the moment of sale.

Because of the improved method of reserve management, speeding up settlements in the electronic currency circulation system is ensured.

In selected aspects of the disclosure, in order to reduce the number of operations carried out in the offline mode, the Operator carries out an operation of purchasing/selling backing of electronic currency in the external market, issuing electronic currency correspondent to the purchased amount, transfers it to the account of the Operator's electronic currency (an operation of selling backing (substantiation) in the external market with transferring the purchased amount to the Operator's fiat currency wallet). At the same time, per-trade amounts of electronic currency reaching which the Operator initiates operations of purchasing/selling backing (substantiation) in the external market, are set by variables Gmin/Gmax on the basis of calculations carried out with use of the mathematical model described below. The amounts of purchased/sold backing Ĝbuy*/Ĝsell* are also set on the basis of calculations carried out with use of the mathematical model.

Let us consider application of the mathematical model for maintaining the liquidity balance in variants of the system's implementation where gold is accepted as a means of backing of the electronic currency.

The Mono-Currency Variant of the System

In selected aspects of the disclosure, only one fiat currency participates in operations of purchasing and selling gold used as a substantiation. In such a system the following mathematical model can be applied.

For modeling purposes, we need to accept the laws of value distribution:

1. distribution of moments of time of receiving orders for purchasing (gold);

2. distribution of moments of time of reception of orders for selling (gold);

3. the amount of the purchase order;

4. the amount of the selling order.

For items 1 and 2 the present invention suggests to take distributions defined by Poisson streams. The streams of purchase and selling may be combined in one where the order type (purchase/selling) is defined randomly (binominal distribution with the probability of purchase of 0.5 in case of averagely equal number of orders for purchase and selling). For numbers of orders let us also take the same lognormal (logarithmically normal) distribution, assigning a positive value to orders for selling and a negative one for orders for purchase.

The following symbols are suggested to be used:

    • K—circulating capital of the Operator used in (and making possible) operations of buying and selling gold;
    • G(t)—the weight of all gold managed by the Operator (i.e. gold substantiating electronic currency sold to clients and free gold in the Operator's free gold reserve) in storages at the moment of time t;
    • g(t)—the part of G(t), owned by the Operator and comprising free gold in the Operator's free gold reserve at the moment of time t;
    • g*(t)—the part of G(t), substantiating electronic currency sold to clients at the moment of time t;
    • a(t)—the amount of the order incoming at the moment of time t. If a(t)>0, the client sells gold-linked electronic currency, if a(t)<0 purchases it.
    • c(t)—the amount of fiat currency in the Operator's free fiat currency reserve at the moment of time t;
    • Tb/Ts—time required for purchasing/selling bullions of gold in the external market for/from the storage (respectively);
    • gpir(t)—the amount of gold (product in road) expected to arrive to the Operator's disposal; it is not at the moment of time t at the Operator's disposal due to the length Tb of the operation of purchasing gold in the external market;
    • cpir(t)—the amount of fiat currency (product in road) expected to arrive to the Operator's account (free fiat currency reserve); it is not at the moment of time t on the Operator's account due to the length Ts of the operation of selling gold in the external market;
    • e—the cost of 1 g of gold (for example, in US dollars). In terms of the suggested mathematical model the value of e may be considered constant;
    • Δ—fixed purchased/sold amount (FPSA) of gold, which means the fixed amount of gold, which could be purchased/sold in the external market with low commission;
    • ofbuy(t)=1, if a(t)<0 and (g(t)+a(t))<Δ—an indicator of purchasing gold-linked electronic currency offline (i.e. a(t) is an order for purchasing gold-linked electronic currency that is carried out offline), otherwise ofbuy(t)=0 (indicating purchasing online);
    • ofsell(t)=1, if a(t)>0 and (c(t)−e·a(t))<e·Δ—an indicator of selling gold-linked electronic currency offline (i.e. a(t) is an order for selling gold-linked electronic currency that is carried out offline), otherwise ofsell(t)=0 (indicating selling online);
    • Gmin (sought-for parameter)—minimal (threshold) amount of g(t) upon achieving which purchase of additional gold in the storage is initiated;
    • Gbuy(t)=1, if (g (t)+(1−ofbuy(t))·a(t)+gpir(t))<Gmin, otherwise Gbuy(t)=0;
    • Gbuy (sought-for parameter)—the fixed amount of gold used for calculating the amount of gold whose purchase in the external market needs to be initiated at the moment t if Gbuy(t)=1;
    • Gmax (sought-for parameter)—maximal (threshold) amount of gold g(t) in the storage upon achieving which it is necessary to initiate the sale of a part of the free gold reserve g(t) for increasing the amount of c(t);
    • Gsell(t)=1, if (g(t)+(1−ofsell(t))·a(t)+gpir(t))>Gmax, otherwise Gsell(t)=0;
    • Gsell (sought-for parameter)—the fixed amount of gold, used for calculating the amount of gold whose sale in the external market needs to be initiated at the moment of time t if Gsell(t)=1;
    • Estore—the cost of storing 1 g of gold for a unit of time;
    • r—the rate (calculated per a unit of time) at which we could allocate the funds allotted to the capital K=g(t)+e−1·c(t). In terms of the present model, the value of r may be considered constant;
    • Eof(P)—reputation (and eventually, financial) losses caused by the (increased) share P of offline operations. The easiest approach to addressing these losses may be the one of setting a strict border of P0 per share of P: Eof(P)=0 for P≤P0 and Eof(P) is equal to a very high value (comparable to the market price of the Operator's company) if P>P0;
    • ComSt—the commission fee which the Operator is charged with for purchasing/selling a unit of gold in the storage (recalculated as for purchasing/selling 1 g of gold);
    • ComCl—the commission fee which the client is charged with by the Operator for the transaction of purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency (recalculated as for purchasing/selling 1 g of gold, substantiating the corresponding amount of the electronic currency).
    • Let |α| denote the absolute value of number a;
      There are suggested two different strategies of managing amounts of purchasing/selling gold:
      1) Gbuy′(t)/Gsell′(t) and 2) Gbuy″(t)/Gsell″(t).

Strategy 1

The idea of the strategy suggests that if (g(t)+a(t))∈[0, g(t)+e−1·c(t)]−[Gmin, Gmax], then we buy or sell fixed amount of gold equal to Gbuy or Gsell. In case (g(t)+a(t))∉[0, g(t)+e−1·c(t)], i.e. capital K is insufficient for carrying out order a(t) online, we buy or sell offline amount of gold equal to |a(t)|. We also take into account amounts of gold included in “product in road” and the fact that we have to leave reserve Δ (see Theorem 1 below).
Strict form of the equations for Gbuy′(t) and Gsell′(t) is


Gbuy′(t)=|a(t)|·ofbuy(t)+Gbuy(t)·(1−ofbuy(t))·Gbuy;


Gsell′(t)=a(tofsell(t)+Gsell(t)·(1−ofsell(t))·Gsell;

Strategy 2

The gist of the strategy is that if (g(t)+a(t))∉[Gmin, Gmax], the amounts of Gbuy″(t) and Gsell″(t) are such that the final amount of gold in the Operator's free gold reserve upon completion of the operation takes one of the values (Gmin+Gbuy) or (Gmax−Gsell), respectively. We also take into account amounts of gold included in “product in road” and the fact that we have to leave reserve A. The formal record looks as follows:


Gbuy′(t)=Gbuy(t)·(|a(t)|·(1−ofbuy(t))−g(t)−gpir(t)+Gmin+Gbuy)++ofbuy(t)·|a(t)|;


Gsell′(t)=Gsell(t)·(a(t)·(1−ofsell(t))+g(t)+gpir(t)−Gmax+Gsell)++ofsell(ta(t).

In one exemplary aspect, the present invention suggests to use a mixed strategy which is a convex combination of above-described strategies 1 and 2 where volumes Gbuy(t) and Gsell(t) of purchased and sold gold are calculated by the following formulas:


Gbuy*(t)=α·Gbuy′(t)+(1−α)Gbuy″(t);


Gsell*(t)=α·Gsell′(t)+(1−α)Gsell″(t),

where a ∈[0,1].

The necessity of purchasing/selling an amount of gold divisible by value Δ of FPSA of gold in the external market requires rounding the purchased/sold amount of gold Gbuy*(t)/Gsell*(t) to the value of Ĝbuy*(t)/Ĝsell*(t) divisible by value Δ of FPSA of gold.

For modeling purposes, we may define the following:

1) ┌x┐/└x┘ denotes rounding number x to the nearest integer on the right/left;
2) A notation of the type Σk=1, 2, . . . , L F(tk) means the sum of values F(tk) for all k=1, 2, . . . , L;
3) rnd(t) denotes the moment closest to t on the left (i.e. previous) in the stream of orders for purchasing/selling gold, and at the same time by the definition the following holds true:


rnd(tk−Tb)=0 ∀tk∈[t1;t1+Tb);


rnd(tk−Ts)=0 ∀tk∈[t1;t1+Ts);

where t1>0 is the moment of reception of the first order (the beginning of the period of order reception). In order to account for cases rnd(tk−Tb)=0 and rnd(tk−Ts)=0, we will make the convention that ƒ(0)=0 for all functions ƒ(·) used in the description of the model that are dependent on time and defined at moments tk of receiving orders.
Amounts of Ĝbuy*(t)/Ĝsell*(t) are calculated by the following formulas:

G ^ b u y * ( t k ) = { G b u y * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if k = 1 ; G b u y * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if i = 1 k - 1 δ b u y ( t i ) + G b u y * ( t k ) Δ · Δ - G b u y * ( t k ) < Δ , k 2 ; G b u y * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if i = 1 k - 1 δ b u y ( t i ) + G b u y * ( t k ) Δ · Δ - G b u y * ( t k ) Δ , k 2 ; G ^ sell * ( t k ) = { G sell * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if k = 1 ; G sell * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if i = 1 k - 1 δ sell ( t i ) + G sell * ( t k ) Δ · Δ - G sell * ( t k ) < Δ , k 2 ; G sell * ( t k ) Δ · Δ , if i = 1 k - 1 δ sell ( t i ) + G sell * ( t k ) Δ · Δ - G sell * ( t k ) Δ , k 2 ;

where


δbuy(tk)=Ĝbuy*(tk)−Gbuy*(tk),


δsell(tk)=Ĝsell*(tk)−Gsell*(tk).

Thus, for providing optimal reserves balance the amount of gold purchased/sold in the external market for the Operator is defined by the parameters Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α.

The values of all the variables dependent on t are construed as correspondent to “the beginning” of that moment. Their value at the next moment (from the Poisson stream) is equal the value at the moment t more the amount of all the values of all changes of the moment t.

Let us number the value of moments of time of incoming of orders for purchasing/selling from the considered Poisson stream: t1, t2, . . . , tk. At the beginning moment of time t1 we suppose

g ( t 1 ) = K 2 , c ( t 1 ) = K 2 · e , G ( t 1 ) = g ( t 1 ) = K 2 .

Further, for all moments t the sum (g(t)+e−1. c(t)) is equal or close to K (slight imprecision may appear during the pauses during which gold is purchased/sold in the external market).
As mentioned above, t1, t2, . . . , tk are moments of time (from the considered Poisson stream) of incoming of orders for purchasing/selling gold. We take the following values of variables for the starting moment t=t1:

c ( t 1 ) = K 2 · e , G ( t 1 ) = g ( t 1 ) = K 2 , g * ( t 1 ) = 0 , g p i r ( t 1 ) = 0 , c p i r ( t 1 ) = 0 .

For all subsequent moments t>t1 the sum (g(t)+e−1·c(t)) will be equal or close to K (slight imprecision may appear during the pauses during which gold is purchased/sold in the external market).

The values gpir(t), g(t), g*(t), G(t), cpir(t), c(t), for moments t=tk, (k=1, 2, . . . ) are calculated successively by the following formulas:


gpir(tk+1)−gpir(tk)+Ĝbuy*(tk)−ofbuy(tk)·|a(tk)|−−Ĝbuy*(rnd(tk−Tb))+ofbuy(rnd(tk−Tb))·|a(rnd(tk−Tb))|;  (1)


g(tk+1)=g(tk)+a(tk)·(1−ofbuy(tk)−ofsell(tk))++Ĝbuy*(rnd(tk−Tb))−ofbuy(rnd(tk−Tb))·|a(rnd(tk−Tb))|−−Ĝsell*(tk)+ofsell(tka(tk);  (2)


g*(tk+1)=g*(tk)−a(tk)·(1−ofbuy(tk)−ofsell(tk))++ofbuy(rnd(tk−Tb))·|a(rnd(tk−Tb))|−−ofsell(tka(tk);  (3)


G(tk+1)=g(tk+1)+g*(tk+1);  (4)


cpir(tk+1)=cpir(tk)+e·Ĝsell*(tk)−e·ofsell(tka(tk)−−e·Ĝsell*(rnd(tk−Ts))+e·ofsell(rnd(tk−Ts))·a(rnd(tk−Ts));  (5)


c(tk+1)=c(tk)−e·a(tk)·(1−ofbuy(tk)−ofsell(tk))−−e·Ĝbuy*(tk)+e·ofbuy(tk)|a(tk)|++e·Ĝsell*(rnd(tk−Ts))−e·ofsell(rnd(tk−Ts))·a(rnd(tk−Ts));  (6)

The greater the invested capital K=g(t)+e−1·c(t), the more rarely offline operations of purchasing/selling gold occur, i.e. the expenses for organization of offline operations are reduced, but at the same time, the expenses for gold storage rise and the profit from allocation of funds in the market (at the rater) is lost.

Trend—a trend (i.e. the linear part of the speed) of changing of function


S(T)=Σk=1,2, . . . ,rnd(T)a(tk),

that is the sum taken on all the moments of the Poisson stream between the moments of time t1 and T. The current moment of time will be taken as T. In case of a sufficiently long process, it is more expedient to determine trend not along all the interval from t1 to T but along some interval from an intermediate moment of time to T. Eventually, the preferable criterion for the trend determination is minimization of parameter K and of function Ex(·) (function of expenses, will be introduced further).

It is understood that different values of sought-for parameters Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell match different trends. For example, in the beginning of the system's launch there is a negative trend (i.e. prevailing of sales of electronic currency to clients) expected. Under these conditions, greater values of Gmin, Gbuy and lower ones of (K−Gmax), Gsell will be more optimal. Modeling of the set level of the trend is possible thanks to changing probability of positivity a(t) (i.e. variation of probability from initial value equal to 0.5). At the same time a non-zero value of the parameter Trend is reasonable to be used only in the situation when a sufficiently stable trend has been formed.

Below, probability of a random event synchronized with the moments of receiving orders from clients will be construed as frequency of occurrence of this event on the observation interval [t1, T].

Let L=index number of the moment of time rnd(T) in the sequence t1, t2, . . . Probability

P ( K , Trend , G min , G b u y , G max , G sell , α ) = k = 1 , 2 , , L ( o f b u y ( t k ) + of sell ( t k ) ) L ,

of executing orders offline is defined by parameters K, Trend, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α.

Overall expenses including reputation losses Eof(·), for the period of duration of T (including orders k=1, 2, . . . , L of the stream) and characterized by Trend are equal to:

Ex ( K , Trend , G min , G b u y , G max , G sell , α ) = k = 1 , 2 , , L ComSt · ( G ^ b u y * ( t k ) + G ^ sell * ( t k ) ) -- k = 1 , 2 , , L ComCl · α ( t k ) ++ k = 2 , , L E store · G ( t k ) · ( t k - t k - 1 ) + e - 1 · K · r · T ++ E of ( k = 1 , 2 , , L ( o f b u y ( t k ) + of sell ( t k ) ) L ) ,

Thus for every set of sought-for parameters K, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, a we carry out a session of tests by the described above mathematical model (used as an imitation model), achieving as a result an estimation of the values of P(K, Trend, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α) and Ex(K, Trend, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α).

For effective functioning of the system, we need to ensure a certain level of probability of executing orders in the online mode, at the same time using the minimal value of capital K.

For a set threshold value P0 of probability of executing orders in the offline mode with help of the above-described imitation model, the following problems are successively solved:

Problem 1. Kmin=min{K: P(K)≤P0}.
Problem 2. Exmin=min{Ex(Kmin, Trend, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α)} for all admissible values of Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α.

It must be noted that minimization of random values is construed as minimization of the average or set percentile.

Thus to ensure probability of execution of orders in the offline mode not higher than the level of P0, raising capital of the amount of Kmin is required, at the same time, to minimize expenses it is required to use the solutions found when solving problem 2 with parameters Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α.

Necessary and Sufficient Capital Reserve

In process of execution of orders of clients for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency, there appears necessity of purchasing/selling gold in the external market. At the same time the amount of purchased/sold gold must be rounded to a value divisible by FPSA of gold Δ. To maintain liquidity and ensure sufficiency of capital K of the company in process of executing clients' orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked currency, the question of the algorithm of rounding the amount of gold purchased/sold in the external market becomes extremely important.

This question has an exact mathematical setting.

Given sequence xk, k=1, 2, . . . of real numbers and some number d>0. Given

x ^ k = { x k d · d , x k d · d ,

i.e. {circumflex over (x)}k is the result of rounding number xk to the closest integer divisible by d to the left/right.
The following proportion must be noted:

x k d · d = x k d · d + d , ( 7 )

which directly results from the rounding operation.
Let us introduce the following symbols:

σ k = x ^ k - x k , S i j = k = i j σ k ,

where k=1, 2, . . . , i>0, j>0i≤j.
Let us consider the algorithm of rounding

x ^ k = { x k d · d , if ( S 1 k - 1 + x k d · d - x k ) < d , x k d · d , if ( S 1 k - 1 + x k d · d - x k ) d , ( 8 )

and show that every sum of Sij is limited.

Statement 1. When rounding real numbers xk, k=1, 2, . . . by algorithm (8) for given d>0 the values of Sij are limited, at the same time the following is true:


d<Sij<d,

for all i, j>0, i≤j.
Proof Let us first prove the inequalities


0≤S1i<d

for sums of the type of S1i by the inductive method.

1. For i=1 we have

S 1 1 = σ 1 = x 1 d · d - x 1 ,

and evidently 0≤S11<d.

2. Suppose, that for given i=k, the inequality also holds true:


0≤S1k<d.

3. Given i=k+1, let us express S1k+1 in the form of


S1k+1=S1kk+1.

Let us consider case

( S 1 k + x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 ) < d

of algorithm (8). We have

S 1 k + 1 = S 1 k + x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 < d .

From the other side, S1k≥0 according to the inductive hypothesis, and

( x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 ) 0

according to the definition of the rounding operation, i.e. S1k+1≥0. Thus,


0≤S1k+1<d.

Now let us consider case

( S 1 k + x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 ) d

of algorithm (8). Taking into account (7) we have

S 1 k + 1 = S 1 k + x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 = S 1 k + ( x k + 1 d · d - d ) - x k + 1 == ( S 1 k + x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 ) - d 0 .

From the other side, for

S 1 k + 1 = S 1 k + ( x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 )

we have S1k<d according to the inductive hypothesis, and

( x k + 1 d · d - x k + 1 ) 0

according to the definition of the rounding operation, i.e.


S1k+1<d.

Thus for all i>0 the following holds true:


0≤S1i<d.

Now let us consider sum


Sij=S1j−S1i−1,  (9)

where i, j>0, i≤j.
From the proved, taking into account (9), it follows that:


d<Sij<d.

Statement 1 has the key meaning in solving the problem of ensuring sufficiency of the Operator's capital for executing order for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency, taking into account rounding purchased/sold substantiation gold in the external market to a value divisible by a FPSA of gold.

To execute any stream of clients' orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency (random as of time of order reception, random as of the amount of purchased/sold gold-linked electronic currency) it is necessary and sufficient to have free reserves of the amount of A in the system, in both assets and money equivalents, respectively, upon reaching which incoming orders are executed in the offline mode. Such approach ensures maintenance of the amounts of gold and fiat currency sufficient for executing all orders pending completion (i.e. being executed in the offline mode).

Let us formulate statement 1 in terms of a mathematical model given in the present description.

Theorem 1 (of necessary and sufficient capital reserve). In the model of rounding of purchased/sold amount of gold in the external market, given FPSA of gold Δ, it is necessary and sufficient to maintain in the system the reserve amount of gold Δ and the equivalent reserve amount of fiat currency Δ·e for maintaining the system's ability to execute all incoming orders for purchasing selling gold-linked currency in the online or offline mode.

Proof. The statement of the theorem is a consequence of Statement 1.

Theorem 1 gives an estimate of the amount of the reserve of capital that is necessary and sufficient for execution of all incoming orders for purchasing/selling of gold-linked electronic currency in the online or offline mode with given FPSA of gold Δ. The necessary volume of a whole capital amount K could be calculated by this mathematical model taking into account that the probability of execution of orders in the offline mode should be not higher than given label P0, and usually amounts no less than 4·Δ.

On the basis of the aforementioned calculations in terms of the present disclosure, a method for managing the electronic currency circulation system's reserves is offered, in which the amount of the valuable purchased/sold for reserves maintenance are rounded to the value divisible by FPSA of that valuable Δ. At the same time, to maintain the system's ability to execute all the incoming orders for purchasing/selling valuable-linked electronic currency in the online or offline mode, the conditions of transferring execution of an order to the offline mode are formalized as follows:


ofsell(t)=1, if a(t)>0,c(t)−e·a(t)<e·Δ;


ofbuy(t)=1, if a(t)<0,g(t)+a(t)<Δ;

i.e. in the system, there is maintained a free reserve of the amount of not less than A both in asset and fiat currency equivalents; in event of decrease of the amount of assets to a level lower than the given one in case of execution of an order for purchase, all operations of purchasing are transferred to the offline mode, in event of decrease of the amount of fiat currency to a level lower than the given one in case of execution of an order for sale, all the operations of selling are transferred to the offline mode.

The Multi-Currency Variant of the System

In one exemplary aspect, the present invention suggests the implementation of the system where several fiat currencies C1, C2, . . . , CN take part in valuable-linked electronic currency purchasing/selling operations.

Let us again take gold as an example substantiation valuable and first consider the implementation of the system where every pair (Ci, gold) is considered independently. In this case, there are built N independent models for N currencies. For every fiat currency, there will be set its own incoming stream of orders and for the given threshold value of P0 problems 1 and 2 will be solved. Thus for the currency Ci, i∈[1; N], there will be calculated:


Ki=gi(t)+e−1·ci(t),


Gmini,Gbuyi,Gmaxi,Gsellii,

equivalent to the values of K, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, α.

In this case the amount of gold taking part in operations of purchasing/selling with fiat currency Ci is calculated separately. A convenience of this approach is initiation of operations of purchasing/selling of the pair (Ci, gold) carried out by the same algorithm upon achieving values of Gmini/Gmaxi with amounts of Ĝübuy*i(t)/Ĝsell*i(t) respectively.

The total amount of the Operator's allocated capital will be:

K = i = 1 N K i .

At the same time, initiation of an operation of purchasing gold for currency Ci occurs upon reaching the level of Gmini.

Evidently, this event may happen with different fiat currencies at different times. It allows to modify the algorithm of maintaining the balance of liquidity for the multi-currency case combining the amounts of Gmini, . . . , GminN into one common pool

G min = i = 1 N G min i .

Let us introduce parameter β∈[0,1] for setting the value of Gmini denoting minimal accountable amount of gold reserved in the common pool for operations with Ci:


Gmini=β·Δ+(1−β)·Gmini.  (10)

As was shown above, for the correct executing orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency it is necessary to keep the reserve amount of free gold equal to FPSA of gold Δ, for each fiat currency. It means, that


Gmini≥Δ.

Formula (10) implies


Gmini∈[Δ,Gmini].

Suppose P0 is an acceptable probability of executing orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency in offline mode in multi-currency variant and P0≥P0.

Obviously, if β=0 then Gmini=Gmini, i∈[1, N], and P0=P0.

With the above-described method of modeling the executing orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency, implemented jointly for all fiat currencies used in the system, it is necessary to determine the maximum value β∈[0,1] such that the probability of execution of orders for purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency for each fiat currency will not exceed P0.

Then the total amount of free reserve gold in the joint pool will be equal

G min _ = i = 1 N G min l _ = i = 1 N ( β · Δ + ( 1 - β ) · G min i ) , ( 11 )

and if β>0 then


Gmin<Gmin.

Then the operations of purchase/sale of gold occur using the same algorithm as in the single fiat currency option. Operations of purchasing gold are initiated upon reaching the amount of obtained free gold reserves of the level of Gmin.

At the same time, operations of purchasing gold will be initiated in all the fiat currencies for which the corresponding current accountable amount of gold has become lower than Gmini. Such fiat currencies exist because of (11).

Then the overall amount of the Operator's capital allocated for carrying out purchasing/selling operations will be calculated by the formula:

K _ = i = 1 N ( K i - ( G min i - G min l _ ) ) == i = 1 N K i - i = 1 N ( G min i - G min l _ ) = K - i = 1 N ( G min i - ( β · Δ + ( 1 - β ) · G min i ) ) == K - i = 1 N β ( G min i - Δ ) .

Because β>0 and Gmini>Δ, the following inequality holds true:


K<K,

i.e. in event of consolidation of gold remainders reserved for operations in different fiat currencies, the value of allocated company's capital K required for carrying out operations of purchasing/selling gold in the multi-currency system is lower than in event of independently carrying out purchasing/selling operations.

Note that the system allows clients to work 24/7. At the same time, external operations of conversion and purchasing/selling gold are carried out 24/5, excluding weekends. The considered model is adapted taking into account involving several centers for carrying out external operations of fiat currency conversion and gold purchasing/selling operations, located in regions in different time zones, in order to minimize allocated capital K.

Practical Use of the Model in Real System's Operation

To simplify the explanation, let us consider the mono-currency case of the system operation, however, everything mentioned will obviously be applicable to the multi-currency case of the system's operation.

Take ={M1, M2, . . . , Mq} as a representative family of different variants of models of incoming streams of orders in the system, characterized by such parameters as intensity of the order stream, the trend, distribution of the amount of orders.

With help of the imitation model of maintaining the liquidity balance for gold-linked electronic currency purchasing/selling operations of the clients of system, managing parameters K(Mi), Gmin(Mi), Gbuy(Mi), Gmax(Mi), Gsell(Mi), α(Mi) are calculated as a result of solving problems 1 and 2 for every variant Mi ∈. As a result, there will be created a base


={(Mi,K(Mi),Gmin(Mi),Gbuy(Mi),Gmax(Mi),Gsell(Mi),α(Mi):Mi∈}

of optimal strategies of management for the system for the range of variants .

In system's practical operation there is used a module which continuously monitors the incoming stream of orders and classifies it for every significant period of time finding the closest equivalent in the database . After identification of the class of the incoming stream, in practical implementation of the system, parameters K(Mi), Gmin(Mi), Gbuy(Mi), Gmax(Mi), Gsell(Mi), α(Mi) of the closest equivalent of Mi∈ are used as the managing parameters of the system.

The following conclusions may be drawn from the present disclosure:

  • 1. The described technology of managing the balance of liquidity for operations of purchasing/selling gold-linked electronic currency by the system's clients allows to minimize the amount of the Operator's capital used for carrying out online operations of purchasing/selling substantiation gold for a set threshold of probability of executing orders in the offline mode;
  • 2. For the used amount of the capital K of the Operator, there are used managing parameters Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell,α allowing to minimize expenses of the company for maintaining operations of executing clients' orders for operations of purchasing/selling gold-substantiated electronic currency;
  • 3. In event of presence of a representative family of models of incoming streams of orders, the problem of calculating optimal parameters K, Gmin, Gbuy, Gmax, Gsell, a for the real stream of orders, requiring a great number of calculations and therefore time, is changed to the problem of identification of that stream with the closest equivalent of Mi from family . Then the sought-for parameters are calculated the following way:


K=K(Mi),


Gmin=Gmin(Mi),Gbuy=Gbuy(Mi),


Gmax=Gmax(Mi),Gsell=Gsell(Mi),


α=α(Mi);

  • 4. As a means of backing (substantiation), the system may hold not solely gold but any other valuable or asset. The described mathematical model of managing the liquidity balance may also be successfully applied to any other types of valuables or assets.

Substantiation of Electronic Currency

In one exemplary aspect, the Operator ensures presence of an appropriate amount of gold for every unit of electronic currency at any moment.

The total amount of gold in the system's storage should be equal to, but in no case less than the sum of gold substantiating electronic currency in the clients' and issuance wallets and the spare gold.

Spare gold may appear in the system in the following cases:

    • when the Operator has purchased gold but has not yet issued electronic currency that would take it as a substantiation (the situation occurs because issuance may be carried out in the offline mode, for safety reasons),
    • when the Operator has withdrawn a portion of its electronic currency from the system but has not yet sold the “corresponding” gold.

The data about the purchased and sold gold are entered into the system by the Operator.

It should be noted that the amount of the spare gold in the system is not supposed to be large, as its existence in the system is supposed to be a result of non-instantness of external operations of purchasing/selling gold. On the whole the total amount of gold reserve (comprising substantiating gold reserve and free gold reserve) is supposed to correspond the total amount of gold-linked electronic currency issued into the system (comprising electronic currency sold to clients and free electronic currency on the issuance wallet of the Operator), as illustrated at FIG. 6.

Purchasing and Selling Gold

Purchasing and selling gold may be carried out by the Operator when and as necessary.

Calculation of the necessary amount of gold may be carried out by the above-mentioned mathematical model of liquidity balance maintenance.

As orders a(t) for purchasing or selling gold-linked electronic currency are received, the system calculates the amounts of gold that needs to be purchased or sold on the external market in the amounts of Ĝbuy*(t), and Ĝsell*(t). If Ĝbuy*(t)=Ĝsell(t)=0 then operations of purchasing or selling gold are not carried out. From the physical interpretation of the model, it is evident that the amounts of Ĝbuy*(t)≥0 and Ĝsell*(t)>0 at the same time Ĝbuy*(t)·Ĝsell*(t)=0, i.e. Ĝbuy*(t) and Ĝsell*(t) cannot be different from zero simultaneously.

In event of carrying out an operation of purchasing gold of the amount of Ĝbuy*(t) in the system, the system makes a recording of the following data for every purchased bullion:

    • 1) the weight of the bullion (mentioning the measurement unit);
    • 2) the state of the bullion's production;
    • 3) the bullion's producer;
    • 4) the data of the certificate confirming authenticity of gold (certificate number, date of issue);
    • 5) the bullion's serial number.

During carrying out an operation of selling gold, the following actions are carried out:

    • 1. In the back-office module of the system, there is created an order for selling, which contains the following data:
      • the weight of the gold to be sold (mentioning the measurement unit);
      • name of the purchaser of the gold.
    • 2. There are recorded the statuses of the order for selling:
      • draft (the order has been created but not received by the system);
      • pending confirmation (the order is received by the system, but the purchaser of the gold has not confirmed its execution);
      • completed (the gold has been sold);
      • canceled (the order in the status of “Pending confirmation” is canceled by an authorized employee of the Operator).

The system withdraws electronic currency from issuance wallets and transfers it to the pre-issuance wallet, releasing gold of the necessary amount of Ĝbuy*(t), and then forms an order for selling in the status of “Pending confirmation”.

After verifying and confirming the order, the system forms a range of the bullions subject to sale in terms of the order.

After the system has formed the range of the bullions subject to sale, the order for selling gold is directed to the broker (or other purchaser) in a way agreed with the broker (purchaser).

The fact of selling the gold is recorded in the system after the gold has been sold.

In the system, the following occurs automatically:

    • the order status is changed to “completed”;
    • the bullions reserved by the order for selling are marked as sold.

In the event of growth of popularity of the offered electronic currency as a means of saving, the gold substantiation will grow proportionally to this demand. High liquidity of the global market allows to timely ensure such increase of gold-backing. Besides, the growing demand for savings in the substantiated electronic currency will lead to growth of gold price, which means a smaller amount of gold will substantiate a bigger amount of savings.

Carrying out payments in the system almost instantaneously ensures high speed of funds turnover. This allows to minimize the amount of electronic currency necessary for servicing the trade turnover.

FIG. 2 illustrates one exemplary method of operation of the system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency illustrated in FIG. 1, and in particular a method of the Operator working with the system. At step 21, the Operator may purchase an initial reserve of an asset (e.g., gold) from a broker. At step 22, the Operator may request issuance of an electronic valuable from the Issuance Center (e.g., an electronic currency) using the Management Module. At step 23, the Issuance Center verifies the existence and amount of the reserve asset is sufficient to substantiate the requested issuance of an electronic valuable. At step 24, the Issuance Center releases an amount of the electronic valuables equivalent in value to all or part of the amount of the reserve of assets, i.e. transfers the electronic valuable from the Operators pre-issuance wallet to the Operator's issuance wallet in the Settlement Network. At step 25, the Operator may purchase an additional amount of the reserve asset from a broker, sufficient to request an equivalent increase in further issuance of the electronic valuable. At step 26, the Operator may then sell the issued electronic currency to one or more users of the system (e.g., end users). At step 27, the Issuance Center may, if technically possible, monitor the current value of the asset reserve and the volume of the issued electronic valuable, and automatically purchase additional backing (i.e., the reserve asset) from a broker if insufficient backing is detected.

FIG. 3 illustrates another exemplary method of operation of the system for issuance and circulation of electronic currency illustrated in FIG. 1, and in particular a method of the Client working with the system. At step 31, the Client purchases an initial reserve of an asset (e.g., barrels of oil) from a broker. At step 32, the Client requests issuance of an electronic valuable from the Issuance Center (e.g., an electronic currency) using the Management Module. At step 33, the Issuance Center, if technically possible, verifies the existence and amount of the reserve asset is sufficient to substantiate the requested issuance of an electronic valuable. At step 34, the Issuance Center releases an amount of the electronic valuable equivalent in value to all or part of the amount of the reserve of an asset, i.e. transfers the electronic valuable to the Client's issuance wallet in the Settlement Network. At step 35, the Client may purchase an additional amount of the reserve assets, sufficient to request an equivalent increase in issuance of the electronic valuable. At step 36, Client may then sell the issued electronic currency to one or more users at a rate set by the Client. At step 37, the Issuance Center may, if technically possible, monitor the current value of the asset reserve and the volume of the issued electronic valuable.

FIG. 4 contains a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for maintaining a reserve of tangible or intangible assets that substantiate an electronic currency (e.g., gold), according to the present disclosure. Prior to or while carrying out the method, various parameters may be defined or dynamically adjusted as described in the various formulas and equations disclosed herein. In some aspects, a threshold minimum and maximum amount of value of one or more tangible assets in the reserve, necessary to fully substantiate the electronic currency is set by an operator of the reserve. In other aspects, these and other parameters may be controlled by software (e.g., a management module associated with the reserve), or by a remote server. As illustrated by this method, the sufficiency of a reserve of assets used to substantiate an electronic currency may be continuously monitored, in view of the number and value of orders for purchasing or selling said electronic currency being made at any given time point (41). The purchase or sale of electronic currency requires a concomitant increase or decrease in the amount of substantiation needed to fully back the issued currency. As such, when the amount of value of the one or more tangible assets in the reserve id determined to have reached either of the threshold minimum or maximum amounts of value at (42), a purchase/sale of tangible or intangible assets at an external market must be completed in order to maintain full substantiation (43). The operator (or the management module, etc.) may calculate the amount of value of one or more tangible assets that may be purchased/sold at the external market based upon any one of the formulas and/or one or more of the parameters disclosed herein. If neither of the thresholds is reached at a given moment, or when adequate amounts of tangible or intangible assets have been purchased/sold, the method proceeds to the continuous monitoring mode (41) and may repeat the cycle. In doing so, the method allows an operator to maintain full substantiation of an electronic currency backed by tangible or intangible assets held in the operator's reserve. While not shown here, the system may be implemented in a manner that allows for substantiation of a plurality of electronic currencies. To do so, the calculation step performed at (42) should account for the additional currencies, as described by the alternative formulas described herein.

As further illustrated by this example, the calculation step may utilize various equations and parameters to determine the amount of value of the tangible assets to be sold or purchased from the external market. This particular example illustrates a system based on a pair of equations for buying and selling operations. However, as described above additional equations and parameters may be used, depending on the needs of a particular implementation. The particular equations selected for this illustration are non-limiting.

FIG. 5 illustrates a process of generating electronic currency at the stage of the system's launch and its issuance into the system according to one exemplary aspect of the present invention. At step 501, the issuance center generates the electronic currency by creating a first block in a blockchain using a mining operation that generates a maximum possible amount of the electronic currency for the system. For this, the program of the issuance center creates the initial genesis block that gives start to the future blockchain. Then the program creates at least two nodes and transfers them the genesis block. The two nodes being communicatively linked, they interact with each other and synchronize their blocks, forming a uniform chain. The program algorithm of the nodes is configured so that the first block created by the nodes after the genesis block generates a maximum amount of the electronic currency possible for the system. The maximum amount possible is defined by the Operator of the system as a constant number. This amount is defined taking into account Operator's wish and technical possibilities of storing information. E.g. the amount of currency units may be equal to or less than the maximum amount of units that can be saved into a memory cell of a given size. For a 64 bit memory cell the amount of currency units may be equal to or less than 263−1, that is the maximum amount of units that can be saved into a memory cell of this size. The program of the issuance center then defines which of the nodes contains the block that stores the generated electronic currency, then the program creates a pre-issuance wallet at step 502 and performs a transaction in the two nodes network, by which all the generated electronic currency is transferred to the pre-issuance wallet at step 503.

After the generated electronic currency is transferred to the pre-issuance wallet, the program of the issuance center creates at least one more new node and links it into the two nodes network. Therefore synchronization between the nodes take place. After that the network operation is stopped and the first two nodes are terminated to eliminate the risk of loosing information on the keys used for electronic currency generation. The blockchain base of the remaining third node is copied to the nodes of the settlement network created aside of the issuance center. After the blockchain base is copied into the settlement network, the blockchain formation continues in the settlement network, and thus the third node becomes unnecessary and may be terminated The settlement network comprises at least two nodes and may operate in at least one data center. All the nodes of the settlement network are controlled by the Operator of the system. At step 504, the issuance center creates an issuance wallet within the issuance center. At step 505, the issuance center checks whether at least a portion of the generated electronic currency is substantiated by tangible or intangible assets contained in a reserve of an operator of the system. At step 506, the issuance center performs a primary issuance of a substantiated portion of electronic currency by transferring a portion of the generated electronic currency from the pre-issuance wallet to the issuance wallet within the issuance center. Notably, the amount of the transferred portion of the electronic currency corresponds to the amount of the tangible or intangible assets contained in the reserve. Next, the issuance center makes the issued electronic currency available for purchase by the clients of the system and further circulation. Lastly, at step 507, the issuance center, in response to a payment from a client, transfers a portion of the electronic currency from the issuance wallet of the operator to a client wallet.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary structure of funds and reserves of a substantiated electronic currency payment system (mono-currency variant) in one aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a general-purpose computer system (which may be a personal computer or a server) on which the disclosed systems and methods can be implemented. It should be appreciated that the detailed general-purpose computer system can correspond to the computer system described above with respect to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 7, the computer system 20 includes a central processing unit 21, a system memory 22 and a system bus 23 connecting the various system components, including the memory associated with the central processing unit 21. The system bus 23 is realized like any bus structure known from the prior art, including in turn a bus memory or bus memory controller, a peripheral bus and a local bus, which is able to interact with any other bus architecture. The system memory includes read only memory (ROM) 24 and random-access memory (RAM) 25. The basic input/output system (BIOS) 26 includes the basic procedures ensuring the transfer of information between elements of the personal computer 20, such as those at the time of loading the operating system with the use of the ROM 24.

The personal computer 20, in turn, includes a hard disk 27 for reading and writing of data, a magnetic disk drive 28 for reading and writing on removable magnetic disks 29 and an optical drive 30 for reading and writing on removable optical disks 31, such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and other optical information media. The hard disk 27, the magnetic disk drive 28, and the optical drive 30 are connected to the system bus 23 across the hard disk interface 32, the magnetic disk interface 33 and the optical drive interface 34, respectively. The drives and the corresponding computer information media are power-independent modules for storage of computer instructions, data structures, program modules and other data of the personal computer 20.

The present disclosure provides the implementation of a system that uses a hard disk 27, a removable magnetic disk 29 and a removable optical disk 31, but it should be understood that it is possible to employ other types of computer information media 56 which are able to store data in a form readable by a computer (solid state drives, flash memory cards, digital disks, random-access memory (RAM) and so on), which are connected to the system bus 23 via the controller 55.

The computer 20 has a file system 36, where the recorded operating system 35 is kept, and also additional program applications 37, other program modules 38 and program data 39. The user is able to enter commands and information into the personal computer 20 by using input devices (keyboard 40, mouse 42). Other input devices (not shown) can be used: microphone, joystick, game controller, scanner, and so on. Such input devices usually plug into the computer system 20 through a serial port 46, which in turn is connected to the system bus, but they can be connected in other ways, for example, with the aid of a parallel port, a game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 47 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 23 across an interface, such as a video adapter 48. In addition to the monitor 47, the personal computer can be equipped with other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as loudspeakers, a printer, and so on.

The personal computer 20 is able to operate within a network environment, using a network connection to one or more remote computers 49. The remote computer (or computers) 49 are also personal computers or servers having the majority or all of the aforementioned elements in describing the nature of a personal computer 20, as shown in FIG. 4. Other devices can also be present in the computer network, such as routers, network stations, peer devices or other network nodes.

Network connections can form a local-area computer network (LAN) 50, such as a wired and/or wireless network, and a wide-area computer network (WAN). Such networks are used in corporate computer networks and internal company networks, and they generally have access to the Internet. In LAN or WAN networks, the personal computer 20 is connected to the local-area network 50 across a network adapter or network interface 51. When networks are used, the personal computer 20 can employ a modem 54 or other modules for providing communications with a wide-area computer network such as the Internet. The modem 54, which is an internal or external device, is connected to the system bus 23 by a serial port 46. It should be noted that the network connections are only examples and need not depict the exact configuration of the network, i.e., in reality there are other ways of establishing a connection of one computer to another by technical communication modules, such as Bluetooth.

In various aspects, the systems and methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the methods may be stored as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Computer-readable medium includes data storage. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable medium can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, Flash memory or other types of electric, magnetic, or optical storage medium, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a processor of a general purpose computer.

In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the aspects are disclosed herein. It will be appreciated that in the development of any actual implementation of the present disclosure, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, and that these specific goals will vary for different implementations and different developers. It will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

Furthermore, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not of restriction, such that the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled in the art in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein, in combination with the knowledge of the skilled in the relevant art(s). Moreover, it is not intended for any term in the specification or claims to be ascribed an uncommon or special meaning unless explicitly set forth as such.

The various aspects disclosed herein encompass present and future known equivalents to the known modules referred to herein by way of illustration. Moreover, while aspects and applications have been shown and described, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method for substantiating electronic assets managed by a blockchain network, the method comprising:

generating a genesis block in a blockchain;
creating two nodes communicatively linked in a blockchain network, wherein at least one of the two nodes generates a block, linked to the genesis block, that generates a maximum possible amount of electronic assets that a memory cell of the at least one of the two nodes is capable to store;
transferring all of the generated electronic assets to a pre-issuance storage device;
copying the blockchain into a settlement blockchain network that operates in at least one data center;
ceasing further generation of the electronic assets by terminating the two nodes, wherein termination deletes keys used to generate the electronic assets;
identifying a portion of the electronic assets that is substantiated by tangible assets contained in a reserve;
transferring the substantiated portion of the electronic assets from the pre-issuance storage device to an issuance storage device, wherein the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device is accessible to client devices for ordering;
tracking on the blockchain, via the settlement blockchain network, orders made by the client devices in relation to the substantiated portion of the electronic assets; and
in response to detecting an order that exceeds the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device: suspending execution of the detected order; and when additional tangible assets are added to the reserve, transferring additional electronic assets to the issuance storage device to enable the order.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking on the blockchain, via the settlement blockchain network orders made by the client devices, whether the reserve fully substantiates the electronic assets in the settlement blockchain network in relation to a need for an increase or decrease of the reserve with the tangible assets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a hashing calculation that optimizes a speed of executing transactions and that minimizes calculating capacity is selected for use by the two nodes and/or the settlement blockchain network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the blockchain is a private blockchain.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic assets are generated using a proof-of-work algorithm.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the settlement blockchain network comprises a geographically distributed network, that operates in at least two communicatively linked nodes, placed in different data centers, wherein all nodes operating in the settlement blockchain network are controlled by a single maintenance center.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the settlement blockchain network is configured such that at least two nodes are available to facilitate orders of the electronic assets at all times.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein an amount of the substantiated portion of the electronic assets transferred from the pre-issuance storage device to the issuance storage device is equal to or less than an amount of the tangible assets.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the settlement blockchain network is configured to allow transfer of the electronic assets between one or more client devices by the settlement blockchain network in a unit that corresponds to a value of a tangible asset.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising handling the orders made by the client devices by:

transferring a portion of the substantiated portion of the electronic assets from the issuance storage device to a client device in response to receiving a payment from the client device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising handling the orders made by the client devices by:

transferring, from a client device, a portion of the substantiated electronic assets to the issuance storage device and in response transferring a payment to the client device.

12. A system for substantiating electronic assets managed by a blockchain network, the system comprising a hardware processor configured to: copying the blockchain into a settlement blockchain network that operates in at least one data center;

generate a genesis block in a blockchain;
create two nodes communicatively linked in a blockchain network, wherein at least one of the two nodes generates a block, linked to the genesis block, that generates a maximum possible amount of electronic assets that a memory cell of the at least one of the two nodes is capable to store;
transfer all of the generated electronic assets to a pre-issuance storage device;
cease further generation of the electronic assets by terminating the two nodes, wherein termination deletes keys used to generate the electronic assets;
identify a portion of the electronic assets that is substantiated by tangible assets contained in a reserve;
transfer the substantiated portion of the electronic assets from the pre-issuance storage device to an issuance storage device, wherein the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device is accessible to client devices for ordering;
track on the blockchain, via the settlement blockchain network, orders made by the client devices in relation to the substantiated portion of the electronic assets; and
in response to detecting an order that exceeds the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device: suspend execution of the detected order; and when additional tangible assets are added to the reserve, transfer additional electronic assets to the issuance storage device to enable the order.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the hardware processor is configured to track on the blockchain, via the settlement blockchain network orders made by the client devices, whether the reserve fully substantiates the electronic assets in the settlement blockchain network in relation to a need for an increase or decrease of the reserve with the tangible assets.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein a hashing calculation that optimizes a speed of executing transactions and that minimizes calculating capacity is selected for use by the two nodes and/or the settlement blockchain network.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the blockchain is a private blockchain.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the electronic assets are generated using a proof-of-work algorithm.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the settlement blockchain network comprises a geographically distributed network, that operates in at least two communicatively linked nodes, placed in different data centers, wherein all nodes operating in the settlement blockchain network are controlled by a single maintenance center.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the settlement blockchain network is configured such that at least two nodes are available to facilitate orders of the electronic assets at all times.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein an amount of the substantiated portion of the electronic assets transferred from the pre-issuance storage device to the issuance storage device is equal to or less than an amount of the tangible assets.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for substantiating electronic assets managed by a blockchain network, by an issuance center executable by a computer processor, including instructions for:

generating a genesis block in a blockchain;
creating two nodes communicatively linked in a blockchain network, wherein at least one of the two nodes generates a block, linked to the genesis block, that generates a maximum possible amount of electronic assets that a memory cell of the at least one of the two nodes is capable to store;
transferring all of the generated electronic assets to a pre-issuance storage device;
copying the blockchain into a settlement blockchain network that operates in at least one data center;
ceasing further generation of the electronic assets by terminating the two nodes, wherein termination deletes keys used to generate the electronic assets;
identifying a portion of the electronic assets that is substantiated by tangible assets contained in a reserve;
transferring the substantiated portion of the electronic assets from the pre-issuance storage device to an issuance storage device, wherein the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device is accessible to client devices for ordering;
tracking on the blockchain, via the settlement blockchain network, orders made by the client devices in relation to the substantiated portion of the electronic assets; and
in response to detecting an order that exceeds the substantiated portion of the electronic assets in the issuance storage device: suspending execution of the detected order; and when additional tangible assets are added to the reserve, transferring additional electronic assets to the issuance storage device to enable the order.
Patent History
Publication number: 20210264387
Type: Application
Filed: May 3, 2021
Publication Date: Aug 26, 2021
Inventors: Vladimir Nikolayevich Frolov (Ekaterinburg), Damir Nasibullovich Gaynanov (Krasnogorsk), Aleksey Petrovich Romanchuk (Yekaterinburg), Anatoliy Anatolievich Vatolin (Yekaterinburg)
Application Number: 17/246,996
Classifications
International Classification: G06Q 20/06 (20060101); G06Q 20/02 (20060101); G06Q 20/36 (20060101); G06Q 20/38 (20060101); G06Q 40/04 (20060101);