A few hours ago, the leading supply chain company Tradeshift announced that it had carried out a transaction to purchase goods from IKEA using Monerium.
This is an important milestone because Monerium is one of the few companies to have a license to send electronic money via blockchain, proving with this transaction that the market is ready for these tools, regulated by governments and with a programmable currency.
Tradeshift co-founder Gert Sylvest explained:
“Programmable money regulated by governments will become the foundation for e-commerce payments because they enable so called ‘smart contracts.’ Smart contracts have many use cases. For example they can be used to generate ‘Smart Invoices’, which are invoices that basically settle themselves. We see smart invoices not just as useful for lowering administrative hurdles in business-to-business (B2B) cross-border transactions, but for building new financing models that makes it easier for enterprises to improve access to credit and improve cash flow. That is why we have built the world’s first smart invoice and now settled it with licensed digital cash together with Monerium. This is an important step forward.”
In fact, just at the beginning of this year, Monerium received a license to operate using the blockchain. This transaction with IKEA involved the use of the Icelandic krona, one of the many currencies supported by Monerium.
Monerium’s CEO, Sveinn Valfells, said:
“As the first company authorized to issue e-money on blockchains, we are delighted to demonstrate the benefits of blockchains for mainstream B2B transactions using a legal form of digital money. Unlike cryptocurrency which is volatile, e-money is a proven digital alternative to cash, regulated and redeemable on demand. Using programmable e-money in smart contracts heralds a new category of payments.”
This represents a revolutionary step forward in the use of smart contracts. IKEA Iceland’s CFO, Stefán Árnason, explained:
“A programmable financial supply chain, where trading partners can connect information flows to money flows through smart contracts, will transform how suppliers and customers interact.”
