Crunchfish receives positive international patent examination for privacy architecture supporting resilient offline payment systems
Publish Date: 2026-03-16 07:37:00
Source Domain: www.inderes.fi
Crunchfish AB notes that it has received a positive International Preliminary Report on Patentability (IPRP) following its PCT demand examination for a privacy innovation related to its governed offline payments architecture supporting payment system resilience.
Figure 1: The privacy-preserving architecture of the governed offline model.
Privacy remains a core design consideration in digital money systems. Surveys conducted during the development of the digital euro consistently show privacy ranking as one of the most important features for the public, even ahead of resilience. At the same time, recent disruptions have highlighted the systemic risks that arise when digital payment systems or their backend functions become temporarily unavailable.
Why this innovation matters for central banks
For central banks and payment system operators, offline payments are increasingly recognised as an essential component of payment system resilience. Digital payments have become critical infrastructure in modern economies. When digital payment systems or their backend infrastructure becomes temporarily unavailable, whether due to outages, cyber incidents or broader disruptions, the ability for citizens and businesses to continue transacting becomes essential.
Crunchfish’s governed offline architecture addresses this challenge by enabling digital payments to continue functioning even when the payment system itself is temporarily unavailable, while still maintaining regulatory oversight and financial system integrity. This creates a credible architectural path for offline functionality in CBDC systems, instant payment infrastructures and digital wallet ecosystems.
One of the long-standing challenges in designing digital currency systems has been balancing three objectives:
- resilience
- privacy
- regulatory compliance
The governed offline model demonstrates that these objectives can be reconciled through architectural design rather than policy trade-offs, an increasingly central…
