MintChip
{{Short description|Digital currency created by the Royal Canadian Mint}}
File:MintChip app screenshot.webp
File:MintChips and Accessories.jpg
MintChip is a digital currency that provides the underlying system to facilitate the exchange of value between consumers and merchants in real-time. It was designed to reduce the cost and risk of financial transactions. This technology was created by the Royal Canadian Mint, backed by the Government of Canada and denominated in a variety of fiat currencies.{{cite news|url =http://gomintchip.com/press-release.html|title =nanoPay Acquires MintChip™ from the Royal Canadian Mint|date =January 12, 2016|url-status =dead|archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20160115000024/http://gomintchip.com/press-release.html|archivedate =January 15, 2016}} The Royal Canadian Mint announced the MintChip project in 2012 and simultaneously launched the MintChip Challenge contest to encourage development of interesting uses for the MintChip.{{Cite web|url = https://mintchipchallenge.devpost.com/|title = The Royal Canadian Mint challenged software developers to create apps for MintChip, the evolution of currency.|date = |access-date = |website = |publisher = |last = |first = }} In January 2016, Loyalty Pays Holdings corporation{{emdash}}a wholly owned subsidiary of nanoPay, a fully integrated loyalty and payments platform provider, announced the acquisition of all assets related to MintChip.
Created to be the first regulator-friendly digital cash platform, MintChip was designed to support compliance of regulatory standards including anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules. MintChip is a digital replacement for cash linked to a country’s fiat currency. MintChip uses secure asset stores to move funds between parties without an intermediary and can process transactions both online and offline.{{Cite web|url = http://gomintchip.com/|title = What is MintChip|date = |access-date = |website = |publisher = |last = |first = }}
Challenge
The Mint ran a challenge during the summer of 2012 to develop apps and ideas for how MintChip could be used. The prizes included $50,000 in gold bullion.{{cite web | url=http://developer.mintchipchallenge.com/challenge.php | title=MintChip Challenge | accessdate=Dec 13, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120075951/http://developer.mintchipchallenge.com/challenge.php | archive-date=January 20, 2013 | url-status=dead }} Winners included a wallet app for Windows Phone 7, an app to donate micropayments to charity with every transaction you perform, and a mobile checkout/point of sale app.
The challenge also had a public voting component for the ideas section. The top 25 ideas would then be narrowed down to top 10 by a panel of judges.
Concept
British cryptographic expert David Everett{{cite book|last=Everett|first=David|title=Smart cards and tokens: technology and applications|date=2005|publisher=John Wiley|location=Chichester, UK|isbn=978-0470024638|pages=320|author2=Barber, Jon |author3=Prakash, Nikhil }} is the technical architect of the MintChip program for the Royal Canadian Mint.{{cite news|last=Mills|first=Carys|title=Digital cash replacement from Royal Canadian Mint in the works|url=https://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/spending_saving/2013/04/30/digital_cash_replacement_from_royal_canadian_mint_in_the_works.html|accessdate=31 Oct 2013|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=30 Apr 2013}} A related smartcard initiative, the Mondex cash card was launched experimentally in the United Kingdom in 1994 but failed to attract commercial interest,{{cite web|last=Steger|first=Paul|title=Visa Cash and Mondex cards|url=http://www.mondex.org/main_page.html|work=Preserving the History of Visa Cash & Mondex Cards|accessdate=31 Oct 2013}} but MasterCard's implementation of Mondex smartcards in the United States was, {{as of|2013|10|lc=on}}, still offered.{{cite web|title=MastercardUSA Mondex smartcard|url=http://www.mondexusa.com/|publisher=Mastercard USA|accessdate=31 Oct 2013}}
{{As of|2013|09}}, Marc Brûlé, CFO of the Royal Canadian Mint, had still endorsed the concept and announced the prospect of MintChip 2.0.{{cite news|last=Greenwood|first=John|title=Q&A: MintChip boss Marc Brûlé on getting into the digital currency business|url=http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/19/q-a-interview-with-mintchip-boss-marc-brule/|accessdate=2 November 2013|newspaper=Financial Post|date=19 Sep 2013}} but in April 2014 the Mint announced a halt to the program and the intention to sell off their MintChip development assets to the private sector.{{cite web|last=George-Cosh|first=David|title=Canada Puts Halt to MintChip Plans; Could Sell Digital Currency Program|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/canadarealtime/2014/04/04/canada-puts-halt-to-mintchip-plans-could-sell-digital-currency-program/|work=Wall Street Journal - Canada|accessdate=10 April 2014}}
Privatization
On January 12, 2016, it was announced that MintChip had been sold to Toronto-based [https://nanopay.net/ nanoPay].{{cite web|title=Royal Canadian Mint sells Mintchip digital payments platform to Toronto's nanoPay|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mintchip-nanopay-1.3402059|publisher=CBC|accessdate=13 Jan 2016}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://mintchipchallenge.com MintChip Challenge site]
- [https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/mintchip/ Minting the Digital Currency of the Future], interview at Wired
{{Digital payment providers}}