FinTech Startups Compared: Monerium v.s. STASIS v.s. CASH ON LEDGER
Nowadays, startups regarding the topic of fintech, blockchain as well as cryptocurrency, are popular all over the world. Decision-makers in enterprises, government entities, and even individuals must accept that they have to be conscious of blockchain technology. [0] The popularity of blockchain is almost an inevitable trend, and all industries will be affected. Through this article, you can simply figure out what are the similarities and differences behind those fintech startups founded in Europe. Serkan Katilmis, Maximilian Forster, Ya-Fang Cheng, Hsiao-En Chen
Monerium
Monerium is an Icelandic startup founded in 2016, with the goal of making digital currency accessible, secure, and simple to operate with public Ethereum blockchains. [1] As the first licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in Iceland, Monerium is the world’s first company to issue regulated e-money on blockchains across the European Economic Area (EEA), which is authorized by Financial Supervisory Authority of Iceland (FME). [2] In Oct 2019, the world’s first smart invoice has announced in Iceland cooperating by Monerium’s programmable digital cash together with the Tradeshift’s supply chain platform. [3]
STASIS
STASIS, a startup founded in 2017, is headquartered in St. Julians, Malta. STASIS provides not only the blockchain service to individuals and businesses but also cooperate with governments. STASIS provides consulting and advisory services regarding legislation of blockchain technology to the official agencies. In July 2018, the Maltese Parliament has officially passed the first legislation for operators in the field of blockchain. This made Malta earn a reputation of being known as “the world’s first blockchain island”. [4] Furthermore, STASIS has developed its own stablecoin EURS, which is backed 1:1 by euros, allows investors to hold a digital asset without exposing themselves to great volatility in crypto markets. [5] With a market cap of over $35 million, it’s already a Top 100 cryptocurrency according to CoinMarketCap. [6]
CASH ON LEDGER
CASH ON LEDGER, the youngest startup among these three fintech companies, is founded in 2019 at Cologne, Germany. CASH ON LEDGER uses Ethereum smart contracts with a permissioned network, Quorum. It integrates the existing financial system by using smart contract to enable automation of new business services, providing a more secure and efficient way of transaction. CASH ON LEDGER’s long-term goal is to become the machine-to-machine (M2M) service provider. [7] For example, it aims to enable IoT machines such as drones to pay and bill Euro automatically by utilizing smart contracts. [8] Moreover, it accelerates cross border cash flows and brings a close connection among information flow, capital flow, and logistics. As with Monerium, CASH ON LEDGER has been granted an e-money license by Spanish National Bank.
Similarity
We have figured out three similarities among these startups. First, it is obvious that they are all fintech startups in the field of blockchain technology. Second, they are all founded and headquartered in Europe; that is to say, they are achieving the same goal which helps to innovate the financial service among the European Economic Area (EEA). Third, all of them have a cooperative relationship with governments. Monerium and CASH ON LEDGER have both been granted an e-money license by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Iceland (FME) and Spanish National Bank, respectively. In addition, STASIS has established government partnerships and provide consulting service, which helps to pass the pioneering blockchain legislation in Malta.
Difference
On the other hand, we have found out four major differences among them.
The Business model
Monerium operates as both a B2B and a B2C market, meaning it markets products and services both to enterprises and individuals. On the other hand, STASIS operates not only B2B and B2C but also a B2G market, which means it also provides its service to the government agency. CASH ON LEDGER operates a B2B market, which aims to become the M2M payment provider in the field of industrial IoT.
The terminology
Although they all use blockchain to build new business models to revolutionize traditional financial service, they are focusing on different terminology. STASIS and Monerium utilize public Ethereum blockchain, which means the network is completely open to anyone who is interested. However, CASH ON LEDGER use Quorum [7], which is an enterprise-focused and permissioned network designed for a financial sector that only organization or individual within the membership system can participate in the operation. Namely, Quorum is not open to all and it’s faster compared to standard Ethereum and Bitcoin rates. Quorum can exceed hundreds of transactions per second that is a huge improvement compared to Ethereum blockchain, which turns out to be an ideal choice in the financial system.
The digitized target
Monerium and CASH ON LEDGER mainly focused on the digitalization of fiat currency, whereas STASIS allows you to digitize any kind of assets, including fungible assets, such as stocks and currency, or even non-fungible assets, such as fine arts.
Product and service
Unlike Monerium and CASH ON LEDGER which focus on providing programmable e-money, STASIS has not only allows investors to tokenized assets on its regulation-compliant tokenization platform but also creates its own stablecoin EURS as well as STASIS wallet app. Moreover, it provides consulting and advisory services to government entities including the Maltese government and Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).
Comparison table
The comparison table will help you to get a quick fact among those startups: (see Table 1):
Conclusion
Companies that are not willing to accommodate themselves to the decentralized world will soon become businesses of the past. However, blockchain technology still struggles to find its place in many industries due to the unclear regulations, the EU’s Anti-money laundering, and the shortage of experienced experts, etc. Startups are still working on discovering new use cases in various industries to help deliver solutions that can work in the real world.
We can say that this journey of transformation is just beginning.
Remarks
If you like this article, we would be happy if you forward it to your colleagues or share it on social networks. Interested in the Euro on blockchain? More information about CASH ON LEDGER on the Internet or on Linkedin.
Serkan Katilmis is a tech entrepreneur and investor, who has more than 20 years of experience in top-tier management consulting. As CEO of CASH ON LEDGER, he promotes the Euro on blockchain systems such that smart contracts can be used in an industrial setting or in B2B contexts. Prior to that, Serkan was working for leading organizations Goldman Sachs, accenture and PwC as an executive. He holds an MBA from Duke University and completed several executive strategy programs at INSEAD. You can contact him via Linkedin.
Maximilian Forster focuses on business development working for Cash On Ledger GmbH. He is co-founder of the Blockchain Bayern e.V., member of INATBA and member of the Blockchain WG at Bitkom e.V.; previously, he helped to build up the DLT and blockchain service offering of KPMG and Accenture and worked on the blockchain investment strategy for Picus Capital. He is also in close connection with the blockchain ecosystem: for example, he has contributed to the Goethe University Frankfurt’s “Digital Banking Practical Handbook” and DHL’s “Blockchain in Logistics” publication. You can contact him via Linkedin.
Cheng Ya-Fang has studied Finance and Informatics at Technical University of Munich (TUM). As an professional auditor in PricewaterhouseCoopers(Pwc) for two years, she had advanced her practical experiences in the field of finance and business by providing audit and tax assurance service to multinational corporations. Further, she is also an active attendee of various blockchain and technology forums. You can contact her via email or Linkedin.
Hsiao-En Chen studied TUM-BWL at the Technical University of Munich. Her fields of interests are mainly blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, e-commerce. She participated in several projects related to Fin-tech applications, previously worked as an Assistant editor in “MIS Review” and Research Assistant in the Department of Management Information Systems in National Chenchi University, Taiwan. You can contact her via Linkedin.
Reference
[0] Sandner, P. (2019, May 25). Priorities for Europe and Germany: Both, the Euro and Identities Should run on Blockchain. Medium. https://medium.com/@philippsandner/how-to-build-blockchain-competency-in-corporations-what-is-the-right-way-3359c1781164 Accessed November 2019.
[1] Monerium. https://monerium.com/ Accessed November 2019.
[2] Partz, H. (2019, Jun. 14). Iceland’s Financial Regulator Approves Blockchain-powered E-money Firm. Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/icelands-financial-regulator-approves-blockchain-powered-e-money-firm Accessed November 2019.
[3] McClure, C. (2019, Oct. 10). World’s first invoice settled using e-money on blockchain. Monerium. https://monerium.com/monerium/2019/10/10/worlds-first-invoice-settled-using-e-money.html Accessed November 2019.
[4] Wolfson, R. (2018, Jul. 05). Maltese Parliament Passes Laws That Set Regulatory Framework For Blockchain, Cryptocurrency And DLT. Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelwolfson/2018/07/05/maltese-parliament-passes-laws-that-set-regulatory-framework-for-blockchain-cryptocurrency-and-dlt/#529caa9449ed Accessed November 2019.
[5] STASIS EURS. https://eurs.stasis.net/ Accessed November 2019
[6] CoinMarketCap. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/stasis-euro/ Accessed November 2019.
[7] Wagenknecht, S. (2019, Nov. 14). CashOnLedger in an interview: “We brought Euro to the blockchain”. BTC ECHO. https://www.btc-echo.de/cashonledger-im-interview-wir-haben-den-euro-auf-die-blockchain-gebracht/ Accessed November 2019.
[8] CASH ON LEDGER. https://cash-on-ledger.com/ Accessed November 2019.
