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A US patent application has been filed by JPMorgan Chase for an online payment system, resembling the Bitcoin virtual currency.

The application says that its new payment system will compete with credit and debit cards for online transactions, creating “virtual cash” that will sit in an online wallet. Similarly to Bitcoin’s “blockchain” technology, each transaction will be saved in a public record of transactions.

JPMorgan said that the electronic system would allow users to make payments “completely anonymously”, also adding that users would not have the “expense of today’s wiring fees”.

The Bitcoin virtual currency has received a lot of press coverage lately, both good and bad. Its links to the infamous Silk Road black market website was expected to have a negative impact on the virtual currency, but surprisingly its value saw a sudden increase surpassing $1,000 at the end of November. This was thought to be assisted by a US Senate committee hearing in November which was told that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin were a “legitimate financial service”.

The patent application was filed in August this year, but was made public at the end of November describing a “method and system for processing Internet payments using the electronic funds transfer network.”

Source: Various online press sites