Canadian Government to End 'MintChip' Digital Currency Program
The Canadian government has announced that it will end its MintChip electronic payment system, and that it will look to sell the business to the private sector. Announced in 2012, MintChip was not a digital currency akin to bitcoin, but rather a digital payment mechanism meant to function as an electronic cash that could be transferred between users. Still, MintChip was widely viewed as an alternative to bitcoin that was famously criticised by Bitcoin Foundation director Jon Matonis for "missing the point" of the technology. A spokesperson for the Canadian Mint confirmed the news to The....
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Canadians will soon be able to make digital transactions in their country’s fiat currency. If the owners of the digital currency platform, MintChip, have their way, other fiat currencies will soon follow. Toronto-based Loyalty Pays Holdings corp., a subsidiary nanoPay, a loyalty and payments platform provider, has acquired the assets of MintChip, a digital currency developed by the Royal Canadian Mint. MintChip uses secure asset stores to move funds that any national currency can recognize, nanoPay noted. Funds can be exchanged without an intermediary, both online and offline. The process....
As of December 18, 2015, all assets related to MintChip – a digital currency developed by The Royal Canadian Mint – were transferred to nanoPay Inc., a Fintech company based in Toronto that provides loyalty and payments solutions for retail and ecommerce merchants. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the MintChip enables consumers and merchants to exchange value almost instantly at a fraction of the cost of other alternatives. The chip itself is a secure smartcard integrated circuit that provides an electronic purse functionality, and can be inserted into all sorts of devices from....
Picking up on the emergence of innovative payment solutions appearing in the US like Square and projects like Bitcoin, The Royal Canadian Mint decided to get in on the game as well with its own digital currency project: the MintChip, seeking to offer the key benefits of electronic currency backed by the Canadian dollar. "Until now," the website reads, "there has been no electronic solution that cost-effectively addresses the very-low-value transaction markets, protects privacy, is available to everyone and emulates the characteristics of cash." And MintChip seeks to address this. The....
The Royal Canadian Mint is to begin testing its MintChip electronic payment system by the end of the year, according to reports. Software engineers at the Mint will begin piloting the system as a new means of paying for goods and services using smart phones and other devices. Announced in April 2012, MintChip isn't a virtual currency. Instead, it is a mechanism for holding Canadian dollars - and potentially other currencies - electronically as digital cash that can be transferred between participants. The concept has languished publicly, with nothing of note happening since a developer....
Taking into consideration the emergence in the US of innovative payment solutions such as the Square and the emergence of projects such as Bitcoin, the Royal Canadian Mint has decided to enter the game with their own design Digital Currency - MintChip. This project is an attempt to supplement the main advantages of e-currency support for the Canadian dollar. "Until then," - we read on the website - "there was no electronic solution that would offer a cost-effective approach to the market is very a low cost transactions, provide privacy, universal access, and incorporates the....