Regulated Fintech Firm Monerium to Issue E-Money on Algorand Blockchain

A regulated European startup plans to bring fiat currency transactions onto the Algorand blockchain.

Iceland-based Monerium, which has a European Economic Area e-money license, has entered into a non-exclusive partnership with Algorand.

Announced Tuesday, the deal will see the two companies collaborate on developing "Real-world use cases that are enabled by advanced blockchain technology" using Monerium's "Programmable" e-money, according to W. Sean Ford, Algorand's COO.Monerium allows clients to develop blockchain-based financial services, such as cross-border settlements, using any fiat currency of choice, such as the euro, pound sterling or U.S. dollar.

The firm holds clients' deposits of fiat currency and releases them in digital form for use on a blockchain.

Algorand was originally unveiled in 2017 as a blockchain with a highly scalable consensus algorithm.

A fund specifically for investing in the Algorand ecosystem received $200 million in commitments from investors including NGC Ventures and Arrington XRP Capital in October.

"Algorand incorporates key features for many mainstream use-cases, including stateless smart contracts and scaleable proof-of-stake consensus," said Sveinn Valfells, co-founder and CEO of Monerium.

"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."

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