Systems and methods for securing digital gift cards with a public ledger

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for providing fraud protection and transaction tracing for gift card accounts through use of a public blockchain ledger. Digital gift cards are associated with tokens which are passed between user accounts. The users do not obtain direct access to the debit codes assigned to the gift cards and are instead provided with variable authentication codes for use in merchant purchases. The variable authentication code is used by a merchant to obtain a reference to an actual debit code held by a web server. Numerous types of transactions are published to the blockchain ledger including initial purchases, reserving/claiming of debit codes, transfers of tokens between accounts, and depleting of gift card value associated with a token. Transactions published to the blockchain occur substantially simultaneously with a merchant purchase such that users may look up gift card values at any time to be assured each gift card is valid.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for tracing expendable debit card ownership comprising:
 issuing a token by a server, the token representing a given monetary value to a specified merchant, the given monetary value is expendable via reference to a debit code representing a gift card, the debit code stored on the server;   associating the token with a first account, wherein an account is accessible to an account user;   issuing periodic variable authentication codes to the first account with the token, wherein referencing the most recently issued variable authentication code to the server directs the server to expend a selected amount of the given monetary value using the debit code at the discretion of the account user;   transferring the association of the token from the first account to a second account; and   publishing the transfer to a public ledger as a transfer record.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the public ledger includes the given monetary amount. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transfer record is referenced by a token number. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the public ledger is organized into blocks, each block containing a plurality of transfer records and is referenced by a height, token or hash number. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said publishing occurs at substantially the same time as said transferring. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the given monetary value is the sum of two or more amounts expendable by two or more debit codes representing two or more gift cards. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising;
 assigning one or more specific debit codes to the token.   
     
     
         8 . A system for tracing expendable debit card value comprising:
 a server, the server enabled to store debit codes and issue tokens, the tokens representing a given monetary value to a specified merchant, the given monetary value is expendable via reference to the debit code representing a gift card;   a plurality of user accounts, the plurality of user accounts stored on the server and accessible by a plurality of users, wherein the plurality of user accounts are configured to accept the tokens issued by the server and the plurality of users have discretion to direct the server to conduct transfers of the tokens between the plurality of user accounts;   a network communicator, the network communicator for providing the server with Internet connectivity and receiving transfer requests from the plurality of users to conduct transfers of the tokens; and   a public ledger website, the public ledger website for receiving notice from the network communicator of transfers conducted on the server and publishing those transfers publicly.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the network communicator is further configured to issue periodic variable authentication codes to the plurality of users guided by and corresponding to the tokens, the periodic variable authentication codes generated by the server, wherein referencing the most recently issued variable authentication code to the server directs the server to expend a selected amount of the given monetary value with the specified merchant using the debit codes. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the public ledger website is further configured to receive notice from the network communicator of expenditures of the given monetary value by the server and publishing the expenditures of the given monetary value publicly. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the public ledger website further organizes the published transfers into blocks, each block containing a plurality of transfers and is referenced by a height, token or hash number. 
     
     
         12 . The method of system  8 , wherein the given monetary value is the sum of two or more gift amounts expendable by two or more debit codes representing two or more gift cards. 
     
     
         13 . The method of system  8 , wherein the public ledger website further includes published charts documenting expenditure trends. 
     
     
         14 . A method for tracing gift card debit accounts comprising:
 issuing a token by a server, the token representing a given monetary value to a specified merchant, the given monetary value is expendable via reference to one or more debit codes representing one or more gift cards, the debit codes stored on the server;   associating the token with a first account of a plurality of user accounts, wherein an account is accessible to an account user, and the first account having a first account user;   issuing periodic variable authentication codes to the first account, wherein referencing the most recently issued variable authentication code by the first account user to the server directs the server to expend a selected amount of the given monetary value at the discretion of the first account user with the one or more debit codes;   causing the server to transfer the selected amount of the given monetary value using the one or more debit codes at the discretion of the first account user to either the specified merchant or to a second account, thereby establishing a modified monetary amount represented by the token associated with the first account; and   publishing the expenditure of the given monetary value and the modified monetary amount to a public ledger as an expenditure record.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said causing the server to transfer, refers to a transfer from the first account to the second account, and the public ledger additionally publishes a balance of the second account. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the expenditure record is referenced by a token number. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the public ledger is organized into blocks, each block containing a plurality of expenditure records and is referenced by a height or hash number. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the public ledger further comprises published charts documenting transfer trends. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said publishing occurs at substantially the same time as said causing the server to transfer. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising;
 assigning one or more specific debit codes to the token.