(121 UK Patent Application „9IGB ,„>2564207 <,3)A (43)Date of Reproduction by UK Office 09.01.2019

(21) Application No: 1806703.3 (51) INT CL: G06Q 20/06 (2012.01) G06F 21/10 (2013.01) (22) Date of Filing: 28.04.2017 G06Q 20/38 (2012.01) H04L9/32 (2006.01)

Date Lodged: 24.04.2018 (56) Documents Cited: FR 003018378 A1 US 20150206106 A (30) Priority Data: Jeff Herbert ET AL:"A Novel Method forDecentralised Peer-to-Peer Software License Validation Using (31) 1607477 (32) 29.04.2016 (33) GB Technology",927 January 2015 (2015-01-27), XP055358639, Retrieved from the (86) International Application Data: Internet: URL:http://crpit.com/confpapers/ PCT/IB2017/052463 En 28.04.2017 CRPITV159H erbert.pdf[retrieved on 2017-03-24]t Anonymous:"Contract- Wiki",22 October 2015 (87) International Publication Data: (2015-10-22), XP055361462,Retrieved from the WO2017/187395 En 02.11.2017 lnternet:URL:https://en.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?titl e=Contract&oldid=59172[retrieved on 2017-04-04] abstract XU XIWEIET AL:"The Blockchain as aSoftware (71) Applicant(s): Connector",2016 13TH WORKING IEEE/IFIP nChain Holdings Limited CONFERENCE ONSOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE Fitzgerald House, 44 Church Street, St. John's, (WICSA),IEEE,5April2016(2016-04-05),pages Antigua and Barbuda 182-191 ,XP032927547,DOI :10.1109/WICSA.2016.21 [retrieved on 2016-07-19] abstract WATANABE HIROKIET AL:"Blockchaincontract: A (72) Inventor(s): complete consensus using blockchain",2015 IEEE Stephane Savanah 4TH GLOBAL CONFERENCE ONCONSUMER Craig Steven Wright ELECTRONICS(GCCE),IEEE,27 October 2015 (2015-10-27), pages577-578, XP032858173, DOI :10.1109/GCCE.2015.7398721 [retrieved on 2016-02-03] abstract

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(54) Title of the Invention: A method and system for controlling the performance of a contract using a distributed hash table and a peer-to-peer distributed Abstract Title: A method and system for controlling the performance of a contract using a distributed hash table and a peer-to-peer distributed ledger

(57) A computer-implemented method (100) and system (1) for controlling the performance of a smart contract. The method includes storing a contract on or in a computer- based repository. The contract is associated with a Values licence between a first user (U1) and a second user (U2). Fig. 1 The method further includes receiving, over a value-N communications network, a transaction comprising a transfer of a token from an agent (A) to the first user (U1) value-1 GB or the second user (U2). The transaction comprises value-4 metadata that includes an identifier indicative of a value-2

location where the contract is stored. The method further includes querying a peer-to-peer distributed ledger (i.e.

blockchain) to determine whether the transaction 2564207 comprises at least one unspent output (UTXO). The value-3 method further includes, responsive to querying the peer- to-peer distributed ledger, determining whether to modify performance of the contract. The blockchain may be the Bitcoin blockchain.

A GB 2564207 A continuation

(74) Agent and/or Address for Service: (56) Documents Cited: Urquhart-Dykes & Lord LLP Anonymous:"Distributed Hash Tables andConsistent UDL Intellectual Property, 7th Floor, Churchill House, Hashing1CloudFundoo",28 May 2012 (2012-05-28), 17 Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH, United Kingdom XP055385840, Retrieved from the Internet:URL:https:// cloudfundoo.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/distributed-hash- tables-and-consist ent-hashing/[retrieved on 2017-06-28] the whole document

(58) Field of Search: INT CL G06F, G06Q, H04L Other: EPO-lnternal, WPI Data