The Block: Monerium to issue e-money on Algorand's proof-of-stake blockchain protocol

Blockchain startup Algorand is linking up with e-money services company Monerium, the two companies announced Monday.

Monerium – which obtained an e-license money from regulators in Iceland last summer – will support Algorand's proof-of-stake blockchain through its e-money initiatives. Monerium's e-money projects are focused on EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein with digital cash denominated in U.S. dollars, euros, British pounds and the Icelandic krona, according to a press statement.

Through the Algorand partnership, Monerium hopes to further promote e-money’s mainstream adoption, the company said.

As previously reported, Algorand drew considerable investor interest last year. In June 2019, it raised over $60 million in a token sale on CoinList. And in August, Bakkt investor 11-11 Ventures backed a $200 million venture capital fund focused on the Algorand protocol.

Moreover, Algorand 2.0 came out in Nov., bringing features that include the ability to tokenize of both fungible and non-fungible assets, the simultaneous transfer of assets across multiple parties, and Algorand Smart Contracts.

“Algorand incorporates key features for many mainstream use-cases, including stateless smart contracts and scaleable proof-of-stake consensus,” Monerium co-founder and CEO Sveinn Valfells said in a statement. “Supporting new blockchains with mainstream relevance is a priority for Monerium.”