Dutch Central Bank Licenses Issuance of Quantoz Digital Euro, EURD, on a Public Blockchain
UTRECHT, Netherlands and SINGAPORE (November 14, 2023) – Quantoz Payments, a pioneer in the world of digital currencies and financial technology, has been licensed as an electronic money institution (EMI) under the supervision of the Dutch Central Bank and permitted to issue its first regulated and programmable euro legal tender, the EURD, on the Algorand network.
It is expected that by the end of this year, EURD and the e-money services will become available to all businesses and consumers within the European Economic Area, regardless of whether they have a traditional bank account. EURD opens the door for payments to internet-connected devices, avatars, and plays a pivotal role in enabling the Web3 economy. With the Quantoz euro, microtransactions become economically viable, enabling scenarios like paying sensors for data, machine-to-machine transactions, and more.
EURD goes beyond being a regulated digital euro and offers a range of compelling features, including robust privacy, transaction fee coverage, and the ability to program money for increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
“Following an extensive due diligence and technical review process, Algorand met all the requirements for issuing regulated digital euros on a public blockchain. From a capacity perspective, we can issue all the euros currently in circulation on Algorand and process thousands of transactions per second, with instant finality,” says Gaston Hendriks, Quantoz co-founder and CTO. “Developers interested in integrating EURD into their applications can leverage our APIs or use our open-sourced payment app, with no in-depth blockchain knowledge required.”
“The Quantoz team combines deep technical backgrounds with rich payments experience and we congratulate them on achieving this important milestone,” says Eric Wragge, global head of business development at the Algorand Foundation. “We are gratified that a leading regulator in the heart of Europe has authorised the issuance of digital euros on Algorand, and we look forward to working with Quantoz on use-case development and product rollout.”
It is important to note that EURD is not a cryptocurrency or a stablecoin but an electronic money token (EMT) that is also distinct from central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
EURD is designed to be fully compliant with the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR), which has brought comprehensive regulation to the issuance of electronic money tokens on distributed ledgers.
About Quantoz
Quantoz, founded in 2015 and operating from its office in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is focused on building blockchain technology-based solutions. Quantoz Payments is a 100% daughter company of Quantoz and is the issuer of EURD. For more information about Quantoz Payments and EURD, please visit www.quantozpay.com
About Algorand Foundation
The Algorand Foundation is dedicated to helping fulfil the global promise of the Algorand blockchain by taking responsibility for its promotion, decentralized governance, and healthy and prosperous open-source ecosystem. Designed by MIT professor and Turing Award winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand achieves transaction throughputs at the speed of traditional finance, but with immediate finality, near zero transaction costs, and on a 24/7 basis.
Media Contact
Nick Haasnoot
Chief Executive Officer
Quantoz Payments B.V.
nick@quantoz.com
+31 6 14812206