Public Mint goes live with the backing of more than 200 banks

Public Mint features tokenisation tools for fiat currencies and has big support from established companies

After two years of development, Public Mint has launched its “fiat-native” public commercial blockchain. It facilitates the tokenisation of fiat currencies, allowing almost anyone to create tokenized fiat assets.

The innovative new platform could propel the integration of blockchain technology with financial institutions. Instead of using a stablecoin, a bank can create its own tokenized assets and have a greater degree of confidence in their underlying value.

What is Public Mint?

Businesses that choose to use Public Mint have the flexibility to receive payment through various means, such as wire transfer, credit cards or auto clearing house payments (ACH). For now, the platform only supports US dollars and is working to open its platform to other currencies as well.

According to IBM Digital asst Labs Director, Nitin Gaur: “By employing blockchain technology as a foundation and applying the benefits of programmability, real-time settlement and finality to business processes worldwide.”

Backed by over 200 banks at launch

Public Mint told media that there are 200 banks supporting its platform earlier this week. The company didn’t disclose which companies are working with the project except for IBM Asset Labs and Hyperledger.

Halsey Minor, the co-founder of Public Mint, commented: “The genesis of Public Mint was to allow regulated banks to hold funds which could then be tokenized or “minted”, allowing for the creation of applications and business processes around money without actually moving money between banks.”

Minor was a co-founder of CNET, a successful digital media platform. He went on to create Videocoin, a decentralized video media network. Minor is now working with Public Mint.

Strong support from DLT leaders

Public Mint did not disclose its blockchain’s technical specifications, but we know that it is a version of Hyperledger Besu with a different set of consensus mechanisms and fiat integrated fees.

So far, the platform has been backed by prominent people in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) industry. Brian Behlendorf, the Executive Director of Hyperledger, is glad to see the platform come online.

Furthermore, Gaur stated that: “Public Mint is addressing that initial promise so that all enterprises, from traditional well-established companies to new and innovative DeFI startups can pave the way for the rise of digital assets.”

Public Mint is still in its early stages, but the successful launch of the platform demonstrates that it is commercially viable, at least from a technical perspective. Time will tell if industry decides to use it to any great degree.