US retail giant Walmart has been granted a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a blockchain system that is able to track items that stores sell to a particular customer.

The proposed platform would enable a customer to register the item after it is bought for the first time, providing them with the ability to choose a price for its resale – with the system acting as a digital marketplace.

The patent stated: “The increasing competition from ‘non-traditional shopping mechanisms’ as an incentive for ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers to stay ahead of new technologies that could improve customer experience.”

The application went on to specify that the innovation is not limited to retailers, as many individual customers often use an item first and then sell it on from there.

Walmart have previously filed patents surrounding blockchain technology, and has linked the new system to those patents. A ‘distributed delivery record blockchain’ outlined a system of automated delivery cars or trucks connected via blockchain technology, which was referenced in the new patent: “The new transaction may be broadcasted and verified by the sender, the courier, the buyer, and/or other nodes on the system before being added to the distributed delivery record blockchain.

“When the package is transferred from the courier to the buyer, the courier may use the courier's private key to authorize the transfer of the digital asset representing the physical asset from the courier to the buyer and update the delivery record with the new transaction.”

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