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Western Union has been granted a patent for exchanging virtual currency, despite previously dismissing the concept.
It comes after the company was granted a patent by the US Patent Office on the exchange of what it described as " alternative currencies" on April 1st.
The paperwork was originally filed back in October 2009, a year after the patent for Bitcoin was submitted.
Although there has been no mention of Bitcoin within the patent itself, several other forms of virtual currency are listed.
In the patent Western Union said: “There are many different types of alternative currencies (herein also “alternative forms of value” or simply “alternative value”), each currency representing what the community holds valuable (e.g. time, labor/skill, goods/services, etc.)."
Turning its attention to virtual currency would represent a significant change of heart for Western Union, after its chief executive officer Hikmet Ersek had previously claimed the use of such technology was "first-world in nature" and would therefore be unsuitable for use in trading with under-developed nations.
The main concern was the fact that receivers in such countries may find little use for virtual currency.
He said “Up to this point, the digital currency conversation has not addressed the practicalities on the receive-side.”
That stance seems to have changed, which perhaps should not come as much of a surprise given that Mr Ersek also said he would be observing the development of such technology with "great interest", conceding that the benefits of the technology could prove to be too good to ignore.
What Western Union will do with the patent remains largely unclear for now, but it could be just part of a strategy that sees it pay a greater attention to digital platforms.
Indeed, the digital age has presented a number of challenges for Western Union, particularly in how it manages its data, which is gathered from customers all over the world.
The way in which it handles that data, as well as its willingness to embrace new technologies, could be crucial to its future.
Posted by Daniel Webber
