Salesforce, a U.S. customer relationship management (CRM) software company, won a patent to use blockchain technology to detect and prevent spam from entering people’s inboxes. According to the Patent filing published on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on November 6, 2018, Salesforce believes that this protocol can more efficiently filter spam than existing approaches.
Fighting Spam with Technology
According to the patent, many messaging systems such as email, text messaging, and instant messaging are often abused and used to distribute unwanted or undesirable messages. While anti-spam techniques exist, they often produce false positives and negatives, where wanted messages are marked as spam, and unwanted messages are not marked as spam.
Salesforce believes that there is a need for improving electronic messaging systems. The software company recently patented a solution that is potentially an upgrade on the existing anti-spam protocols. Not only can the system more efficiently filter through spam mail than existing approaches, but it can also detect whether emails have been changed or tampered with during transit, over a network.
The patented blockchain platform works by having a series of email servers reach a consensus on the true original email. As seen in the technical component of the filed patent, when a user sends an email, it will be noted onto a block in the blockchain platform to gain the approval of other nodes. When the secondary email server receives the message, the secondary email servers then use the original message recorded on the blockchain as a reference.
If the secondary server confirms that the email matches the first server, the message will reach the recipients’ inbox. If there are discrepancies and alterations, the emails enter the spam folder.
If the platform is implemented correctly, the immutable and distributed nature of the technology makes it impossible to change and modify information once it is recorded on the blockchain.
Salesforce: A Big Supporter of Blockchain
While the patent specifically focused on using blockchain technology to fight spam, Salesforce also mentioned that blockchain technology could solve many problems in other industries. The distributed ledger technology can assist with providing authentic medical records, educational transcripts, legal documents, property rights, and deeds.
Although it’s uncertain whether this blockchain product is the one Marc Benioff, the CEO and Chairman of Salesforce, mentioned in a fireside chat seven months ago in April 2018, Salesforce is nevertheless, a big supporter and advocate of blockchain technology.
