e-Money (NGM) (launched January 2021) is a blockchain-based payment platform with the aim of making peer-to-peer payments and money transfers cheaper and more accessible digitally. ^[2]

With the presence of e-Money, Block Finance A/S intends to do away with the intermediaries present in most traditional financial services by introducing ‘currency-backed’ stable coins.

Overview

eMoney’s currency-backed stable coins serve as the backbone of e-Money’s frictionless digital asset for cross-border transactions.^[3]

e-Money is aiming to reimagine the stable coin. Traditional stable coins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a value that is pegged to a particular asset. But this has its drawbacks- for example, sudden market crashes of the underlying asset can result in the stable coin being unable to keep up and maintain its peg.^[2]

e-Money distinguishes itself with its novel token- an interest bearing stable coin that can shift in value to accommodate economic pressures.^[1]

Background

The team behind e-Money is Block Finance A/S, a Danish Fintech company innovating new technologies to bridge traditional financial services and distributed ledger technology. ^[1]

Their motive is to create a platform that can bridge blockchain with the traditional financial system. Doing this, stable coins can find a stronger use case and attract greater adoption as it promises an alternative means of exchange, free from the interference of financial middlemen or large institutions.^[3]

The platform is built on top of the Cosmos chain, which is also the same network where some of the biggest decentralized exchanges are developed. Furthermore, e-Money promises a faster, easier, and cheaper method of making peer-to-peer transactions worldwide.^[3]

The team behind e-Money established the coin to usher in a new model for stable coins that has the following characteristics:

• Completely backed with actual bank deposits and government bonds;

• Can support multiple currencies;

• Lower transaction charges;

• Quick transaction settlement times; and

• Interest-bearing.

How it Works

e-Money is an innovation from the original concept modeled for collateralized stable coins. One of its differences, however, is that it can hold interest. This is similar to how savings accounts in traditional banks work, making them a viable alternative store of value compared to other stable coins that also fluctuate based on the movements of the whole crypto market.^[3]

e-Money’s currency-backed token does not ensure a 1:1 peg with the fiat it represents. Instead, its price depends on the value held by the currency plus the interest accrued on the reserves of e-Money on the represented fiat. ^[3]

Annually, the supply of the e-Money token will be inflated by 1%. And unlike algorithmic stable coins, the value of a currency-backed stable coin does not depend on the need to manage its overall supply, monitor the performance of its underlying reserve, or collect transaction fees. ^[1]

Team

The e-Money platform is supported by a team of professionals, each of whom has acquired relevant experience in their field.

• Martin Dyring-Andersen (CEO & Founder)

He has over 15 years of experience in IT startups and algorithmic trading. He is a passionate entrepreneur with a deep interest in the knowledge of implementing new technologies.
He is the key force in driving e-Money forward to help shape the transaction infrastructure of tomorrow.

• Henrik Aasted Sørensen (CTO & Co-Founder)

He has over 15 years of experience within financial infrastructures, He is perfectly placed to help bring the e-Money vision to fruition. As a senior software engineer with a profound knowledge of building complex web applications in the financial the sector, he has continued to steer the development of e-Money’s technology stack.

Already he has helped to ensure that e-Money has a considerable advantage in this area, launching with a range of technology support.

• Marianne Schmidt Nellemann (COO & Partner)

She has over 20 years of experience within financial institutions including ten years at Danske Bank. Her intimate knowledge of the sector is instrumental in guiding e-Money as it strikes relationships with banks first in Western and Northern Europe, and then in the United States and Japan.

• Laura Toma (CMO)

As a Marketing and PR specialist with over 10 years of experience in business development and startups, she has the knowledge and contacts required to help e-Money reaches its full potential.

She helps guide e-Money’s marketing strategy to gain interest beyond the reach of the Cosmos network.

• Dejan Horvat (CCO)

He is a communications specialist with extensive experience working within the blockchain industry, he has led the community management and growth of 150+ projects totaling a massive 1 million community members.

He works to ensure that e-Money’s business activities are in alignment with its strategic commercial objectives in order to achieve sustained business growth.

Features

Cosmos and Tendermint Deployment

e-Money is developed on top of the Cosmos chain, making it interoperable with other blockchain ecosystems. However, e-Money’s system maintains its independence from other chains through the implementation of a ‘sovereign zone.’^[2]

Cosmos is used to enable inter-blockchain communication (IBC), a feature known to many as the ‘internet of blockchains.’ Through the Cosmos Hub, e-Money’s platform can frictionlessly interact with other blockchain networks should they need to be implemented on different platforms.^[3]

Tendermint deployment is also another remarkable feature of the platform as it helps achieve faster transaction settlement times without compromising data integrity and security through Proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms.^[2]

Validator Network

Since the platform secures blockchain consensus through stakers, validator networks are put in place to ensure the security of the network. Therefore, e-Money implements the validator service accessible in the Cosmos Hub and IRISnet’s IRIS Hub.^[3]

The main task of validators is to confirm the authenticity of blockchain transactions involving e-Money, as well as to ensure the integrity and health of the whole network. Currently, there are already over 40 validators working to maintain the security of the platform.^[1]

e-Money’s DEX

Along with the currency-backed stablecoin, e-Money also has a decentralized exchange platform where users can access cryptocurrencies available in the Cosmos ecosystem.^[3][3]

It bears some differences from a typical Decentralized Exchange (DEX) like:

• Payments needed for trades are only for transaction fees;

• Transaction fees can be paid with your preferred token;

• There are no listing requirements to use the DEX, any token is already tradeable once supported by the platform;

• Higher liquidity since token balances can be sold on different orders; and

• Faster transaction throughput through an on-demand block generation method.

Tokenomics

NGM Token

NGM token is primarily used for staking, as well as a reward incentive for users. Users can lock their NGM tokens on smart contracts for staking, or use them to nominate validators they trust to maintain the network. Annually, the NGM supply will be inflated by 10%, and then distributed proportionally to stakers. ^[2]

NGM token is also the backbone of e-Money’s operations, with token rewards being the only source of funding for the platform.

The NGM token has an initial total supply of 100,000,000 $NGM and a circulating supply of 6,364,516 $NGM.

• Identifier: NGM (“Next Generation of Money”)

• Supply: 100,000,000 initially.

• Purpose: Staking and reward distribution.

• Rights: Staking rewards, Provides no governance rights.

• Trust anchor: Sovereign e-Money zone.

On January 19, 2021, at 12:00 CET, e-Money launched the public sale of its NGM token on Polkastarter. It was in form of an Initial Decentralised exchange Offering (IDO). 300,000 NGM tokens were available for sale at USD$0.50 each.^[1]

e-Money Token

e-Money, its currency-backed stablecoin, can represent several cryptocurrencies. Its main function is to support the exchange of currencies between e-Money users. They can be used for payments, remittances, and transaction fees.^[3]

Supported fiat currencies will have their own representation on the e-Money platform. These are currencies like EUR, CHF, SEK, NOK, Japanese Yen, USD, and GBP. The initial tranche of currencies supported by e-Money focused on Western and Northern Europe, for example, the eEUR for Euro, the eCHF for the Swiss Franc, and the eSEK for the Swedish Krona. There are plans for more tokens to be introduced soon.^[3]

• Identifier: eEUR

• Supply: Unlimited

• Purpose: Tokenization of EUR held in bank deposits and bonds, Used as a payment and fee token.

• Governance: Provides no governance rights

• Trust anchor: Sovereign e-Money zone

Funding Rounds

Seed Round (concluded) :2,285,000 NGM sold at 0.10 USD per token. 12 months vesting period.*

Private Sale (concluded): 6,700,000 NGM sold at 0.25 USD per token. 6 months vesting period.*

Public Sale (on 19th January 2021): 300,000 NGM to be sold at 0.50 USD per token. No vesting period.*

*The initial vesting date was 4th November 2020 at 1:00pm CET.

Token Allocation

Marketing Costs: 280,000 NGM (0.28% of total supply)

Market-Making Fees: 33,333 NGM. (0.033% of total supply)

Exchange Listing Fees: 600,000 NGM. (0.60% of total supply)

Liquidity Provisioning (Float): 1,193,026 NGM. (11.9% of total supply)

Customer Acquisition: 8,300,000 NGM. 8.3% of total supply)

Ecosystem Fund (Grants): 10,000,000 NGM. (10% of total supply)

Treasury: 60,000,000 NGM. (60% of total supply)

Partnerships

MANTRA DAO

e-Money partnered with Mantra DAO, a community-governed DeFi platform focusing on staking, lending, and governance. Together, their partnership will be looking to bring together and connect the two communities as they explore the integration of stablecoins in DeFi.^[2]

MANTRA DAO announced that they have launched an e-Money $NGM validator node in support of the e-Money network. To show further support, they also made a substantial direct investment in e-Money’s native NGM token. ^[1]

CEO and Founder of e-Money Martin Dyring-Andersen said

“We are extremely excited to be working together with the MANTRA DAO team. The partnership will help us to meet our goal of improving accessibility in the blockchain space while also connecting e-Money’s asset-backed tokens with the ever-expanding DeFi ecosystem. We are thrilled to have the great team at MANTRA DAO supporting e-Money as partners, investors, and validators, and we look forward to innovating together to grow and improve the cryptosphere.”

Starname

e-Money partnered with digital identity platform Starname, formerly IOV, a thesis-driven project that aims to bring about mass-adoption through the implementation of innovative solutions. ^[2]

This integration with Starname will bring greater accessibility for e-Money users. Firstly, Starname will make it easy for anyone around the world to transact e-Money’s currency backed tokens by removing one of the key pain points that bars entry for some, namely the complexity of managing blockchain addresses, thereby removing the requirement of extensive pre-existing blockchain knowledge. ^[3]

e-Money CEO added;

“By integrating with Starname, we’ll be providing a first class experience for e-Money users. The Starname team has been a long time and well respected part of the Cosmos community and we are excited to continue our journey to make crypto mainstream by working together with them.” 

Antoine Herzog, CEO and co-founder of Starname also said

“We are super excited to work with e-Money to make it accessible for everyone to use the first european stable coins. We look forward to working on UX interfaces together to simplify registration of new users in order for them to use e-money seamlessly.”