International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) says that it has struck a partnership with Stronghold, a financial technology start-up, to jointly launch a new cryptocurrency called Stronghold USD.
The cryptocurrency will be a so-called “stable coin,” which means it will be supported by a government-backed currency, in this case, the US dollar. The digital currency will launch on the Stellar blockchain platform and will be backed one-for-one with US dollars at Prime Trust, a Nevada-based company that will deposit the cash at banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
“Asset-backed tokens can provide seamless access to all currencies, improving the global movement of money,” Stronghold co-founder Sean Bennett noted.
“What we really want to do is enable all sorts of digital transactional networks to settle their transactions with digital fiat currency on the same blockchain networks,” Jesse Lund, head of blockchain and digital currencies at IBM stated.
