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UK crypto connected to CBDC tech up 16% in a week

Stock Market are go to bull market Chart,graph going up with green candle stick and financial trader using Online trading selective in cryptocurrency bitcoin and other coin trading in new business asset world investment
The Quant Network's cryptocurrency has gone up 16% in the past week and almost 50% in September. (TERADAT SANTIVIVUT via Getty Images)

The Quant Network (QNT-USD) has surged throughout September, seeing an almost 50% rally despite the majority of blue-chip cryptocurrencies having a dismal month.

Quant's indigenous cryptocurrency is priced at $134.29 (£119.41), up 16% in the week and seeing an almost 50% rise in value throughout September.

The proliferation of distributed ledger technology could see Quant become one of the core systems for processing the transfer of value and information across the globe.

The UK-based cryptocurrency, which is ranked 34th in the sector's market cap rankings, is positioning itself to become the glue that joins the world's public and private blockchains together.

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This gives it a unique position to be utilised in the design of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.

Quant (QNT-USD) has an almost monopoly in the "state cryptocurrency" sector and its multiple-blockchain expertise is sought by the builders of CBDCs.

Read more: This AI tool ‘threatens human creativity’ and the art world is worried

CBDCs are being rolled out across the world, and news of central bank digital currencies such as China's digital yuan and the UK's development of a digital sterling or ‘Britcoin’ has caused both alarm and excitement.

Watch: US Senator: 'Digital assets will be as big as the internet itself' | The Crypto Mile

People are alarmed because programmable money could be used to coerce and control vast populations and there are also privacy concerns because every CBDC transaction could be tracked by governments.

However, there is excitement that this technology could drive innovation, efficiency and the use of distributed ledger technology, and the Quant Network is playing its role as being a key piece of the architecture needed to manifest this new technology.

Recent data from crypto-metrics firm Santiment shows whales holding between 100 and 1,000 QNT have increased their positions by 15.4% over the past five months.

Lots of investors are realising the potential behind Quant Network, which has been reflected in the token's sustained rise in value despite September seeing a dismal performance for most blue-chip cryptocurrencies.

The ingredients that would suggest the Quant Network has realistic upside potential are that it is being developed as a keystone for DLT technology and the team behind it have deep connections to traditional financial institutions and the UK government.

It is seen as the gateway to interoperability between blockchains, and is now in connection with a network of 570 banks.

CBDC Central Bank Digital Currency banner logo for business technology, financial, blockchain, exchange, money and digital asset. futuristic vector background concept.
CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currency logo (https://www.facebook.com/PlargueDoctor/ via Getty Images)

The Quant Network

The Quant Network was launched in 2017 as an underlying operating system that allows interoperability with every blockchain in existence.

The Quant network does not have its own blockchain, it is an operating system for blockchains to communicate with each other.

Blockchains are inefficient at hosting operating systems. A blockchain would be an incredibly expensive and time-consuming way to operate an operating system and would make an operating system much more complex than it needs to be.

The Quant network is made up of two key elements; The Overledger technology, which is the interoperable blockchain operating system, and the Overledger network which makes up all the developers who are building applications for the Overledger operating system.

The Overledger operating system will allow developers to create decentralised multi-chain applications (referred to as mApps) that make it possible for smart contracts from separate blockchains to interact with each other.

Quant believes the future will be pluralistic and composed of a multitude of blockchains communicating with each other, rather than a few blockchains dominating the transfer of value and information across the globe.

The technology creates a new paradigm for developers, allowing for the creation of multichain applications, rather than ones that are specific to just one blockchain, such as the Ethereum network or Cardano network.

Gilbert Verdian, CEO of The Quant Network, has worked for many years in the government and private sectors on payment systems and cybersecurity.
Gilbert Verdian, CEO of The Quant Network, has worked for many years in the government and private sectors on payment systems and cybersecurity. (The Quant Network)

Gilbert Verdian is the founder of the Quant Network, and has worked for the UK Government, for Downing Street, HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice and has also served in the private sector, at Mastercard (MA), Price Waterhouse Cooper and HSBC (HSBC).

What about decentralisation?

There are concerns about CBDCs, especially from advocates of the cryptocurrency sector who prize the decentralisation of legacy institutions that control how most of the globalised society functions.

The mass adoption of CBDCs would be counter to this ethos of a decentralised world that was the major principle within Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Whitepaper in 2011.

CBDCs increase not only the monetary control of governments over populations but the ability for digital currencies to be programmable, via smart contracts, allowing for major changes in how money works.

Programmable money could be time-based, with consumers needing to spend it within a given time period, before it is erased.

It could also be location-based, where a digital currency that is connected to a particular individual's digital wallet would only be useable within restricted locations and could be made incompatible for use with products, companies or activities for that individual.

The Quant Network is down from an all-time high of nearly $400 in early September 2021, but like the rest of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, investors are speculating that it is a long-play and will flourish if a bullish market reappears.

Watch: This AI tool could kill human creativity and is worrying the art world | The Crypto Mile