Monerium will issue e-money on the Algorand blockchain protocol in order to support fiat-currency transactions on Algorand. Monerium is an authorised provider of licensed e-money for blockchains. Algorand offers a permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. The non-exclusive partnership will exploit the Algorand protocol for Monerium’s fully programmable and redeemable e-money.
“We look forward to supporting the Algorand protocol. Algorand incorporates key features for many mainstream use-cases, including stateless smart contracts and scaleable proof-of-stake consensus.
“The Algorand leadership has taken a pragmatic and deliberate approach in designing a blockchain for mainstream applications while staying close to the ethos of the open source community” states Sveinn Valfells, co-founder and CEO of Monerium.
“Supporting new blockchains with mainstream relevance is a priority for Monerium.”
Monerium’s e-money
Monerium is a financial technology company. It states its mission as being to make digital currency accessible, secure, and simple to transact online. Monerium has the authorisation to issue regulated e-money on blockchains.
Using e-money issued by Monerium, individuals and businesses can store and send programmable digital currency online without going through traditional financial institutions and payment providers. According to Algorand and Monerium, mainstream adoption of blockchains requires a reliable form of digital cash on-chain.
Since receiving its e-money license in June 2019, Monerium has announced several B2B use cases for e-money, including a cross-border transaction in euros. The company currently supports e-money across the EU, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein in:
- US Dollars
- Euros
- British Pounds
- Icelandic Krona.
“Monerium and Algorand have a shared vision for real-world use cases that are enabled by advanced blockchain technology,” said W. Sean Ford, COO of Algorand, Inc.
“We are thrilled that Monerium will be bringing their solution for e-money to Algorand and we look forward to our community’s ability to leverage the technology for straightforward regulatory compliance.”
Algorand
Algorand has built an open source, permissionless, proof-of-stake blockchain protocol. This focuses on delivering blockchain for new generations of financial products by removing friction from financial exchanges.
The Algorand protocol is the brainchild of cryptographer Silvio Micali. Algorand hopes to power the DeFi evolution by enabling:
- the creation and exchange of value
- new financial tools and services
- assets to be on on-chain
- responsible privacy models.
Algorand has recently upgraded its protocol (to Algorand 2.0). This contains features which facilitate complex transactions including:
- account quarantine
- whitelist models
- flexible asset reserve models.
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
As a licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI), Monerium is able to build digital financial services on a decentralised infrastructure (blockchain) using fiat currency. It can offer this as a service so that new, or existing, financial service firms can focus on their core businesses while Monerium’s blockchain contracts handle the instructions, clearing and settlements. Explicit is that Monerium’s services satisfy regulatory compliance.
Because it is an EMI, Monerium can issue asset-backed e-money with details recorded on blockchains. This provides customers with legal protections while gaining the advantages afforded by blockchains: sending, receiving, and storing digital money without going through a financial institution.
There is an important contrast to be made here: virtual currencies that transact on blockchains do not offer such protections. They may not be subject to the same requirements of being asset-backed, redeemable, audited and supervised. This is the key commercial advantage which Monerium hopes to commercialise.
