Abstract

The rapid and enormous market capitalization achieved by Bitcoin in recent years has also increased demand for cryptocurrencies based on blockchain technology. At present, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the leading cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization and trading volume. As such, those cryptocurrencies play a central role in the ongoing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) process, which regards the development of a financial ecosystem based on blockchain technology. This comparative study seeks to contribute to filing a gap in the intellectual property management literature by examining the main technological trends associated with both cryptocurrencies based the analysis of patent information. We have found that both Bitcoin and Ethereum started to become a technological hotspot from 2016 onwards, as the number of patent applications for both cryptocurrencies started to skyrocket in this particular year. We also present evidence that both Bitcoin and Ethereum patents address data processing issues, rather than hardware technologies. Furthermore, we observed that the US and China are the main patent applicants regarding Bitcoin, while China is by far the leading applicant of Ethereum patents.

Keywords: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Patent landscaping, Cryptocurrency, Intellectual property