Quant

What is Quant (QNT)?

Quant is a network focusing on blockchain interoperability and bills itself as the first operating system to be built for blockchains.

Ever since the introduction of Bitcoin and its ground-breaking blockchain, followed by Ethereum’s innovative concept of programmable money, countless projects have hit the market, offering entire ranges of solutions for enterprises and individuals.

However, each platform tends to be different in some way, and one of the main challenges facing would-be adopters of the technology is integration. This could be integration between legacy systems and blockchain technology, or between two or several blockchain platforms.

Quant is one of the projects aiming to make this sort of transition a painless endeavor via its blockchain operating system, called Overledger.

The Overledger can connect different distributed ledgers, such as blockchains and enterprise software, using exceedingly simple, even plug-and-play-like solutions that don’t require huge project teams to deploy new infrastructure.

Best of all, Quant can manage all of this without compromising the performance or autonomy of each chain that it links, ensuring that these chains can still do their job without any inhibiting factors.

When Was Quant Launched?

Quant was launched in June 2018 with an ICO that saw the sale of 9.9 million QNT tokens being sold to the public, raising over $11 million.

Out of the remaining token supply of over 14.6 million, 2.6 million QNT went to the company reserve to fund the project’s operation, 1.3 million QNT went to the founders of the project, and 651,000 QNT went to company advisors.

This ICO did not meet Quant’s goals, falling well short of the $40 million hard cap for the ICO. To make up for this, Quant Network received an undisclosed amount of funding from Alpha Sigma Capital in July 2020.

Alpha Sigma Capital, founded by Enzo Villani, is an investment fund focused on blockchain companies. ASC is also the lead investor and sponsor group for Blockchain Moon Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: BMAQU), a $115 million SPAC.

Its portfolio also includes the likes of Aave, Coinbase, Solana, Helium, Galaxy Digital, Audius, Dfinity, Polkadot, Theta, Decentraland, and Splinterlands.

Who are the Founders of Quant?

Quant was founded by Gilbert Verdian, who started working on Quant as early as 2015.

Verdian, who was working in the healthcare sector at the time, came up with the idea of a system that allows for interoperability between multiple distributed ledgers.

A veteran of top companies such as British Petroleum, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young, Verdian also created the Blockchain ISO Standard TC307 that has been participated in and observed by over 63 countries to date.

The ISO TC 307 Working Group for interoperability of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) is chaired by Verdian, who also chairs Blockchain and DLT within the British Standards Institution.

Dr. Paolo Tasca is also credited as a co-founder of the project, serving for six months beginning in December 2017 as Chief Strategist before spending a year in an advisory role.

Tasca is a digital economist specializing in distributed systems. He has played an advisory role on blockchain for the EU Parliament, the United Nations, and several central banks.

Currently, Tasca is the Director of the Center for Blockchain Technologies at University College London and co-authored the bestseller “FINTECH Book.”

Colin Paterson is also often credited as a co-founder of Quant. A graduate of Coventry University and currently a Director at TrustPath, Paterson was the CTO of Quant Network from December 2017 to June 2019.

How Does Quant Work?

Quant’s Overledger operating system connects different types of distributed ledger systems, including blockchains and directed acyclic graphs (DAGs like Fantom, Nano, or IOTA) to legacy systems like databases and CRMs.

Rather than requiring another blockchain to do this, Quant forms this connection through a single API. This means that developers can have access to the DAG or blockchain via Quant in a very short time.

Users and developers need QNT to access the Overledger OS. Once access is granted, users have a variety of tools at their fingertips and can begin creating blockchain apps that can run on any distributed ledger. This is Quant’s core API, called “Overledger Integrate.”

Quant can be used to create multi-chain applications (mApps) that use different features of different networks to run on multiple chains simultaneously. Smart contracts can even be created on blockchains that don’t support them.

The Overledger Network secures the transfer of information and data on Quant. Meanwhile, the Overledger DLT Gateway assists the system with interoperability by transferring digital assets and allowing the writing of smart contracts.

The Quant protocol uses multiple layers, matching tasks to the layer that suits them best:

• Transaction Layer. Both varied and isolated ledgers are used to set operations in one layer and verify them across the blockchain. Anything that requires blockchain consensus happens here.
• Messaging Layer. This layer deals with information and data transfer, processing smart contract data, metadata, and transaction data. Metadata is used to translate messages into different languages for different blockchains to compute.
• Filtering and Ordering Layer. This also handles messages, but unlike the messaging layer, it filters searches into specific results. This layer validates off-chain messages since it keeps a history of messages transferred through the protocol in a first-come, first-served database.

What are Smart Contracts?

Smart contracts are pieces of code that execute predetermined actions once a set of specific conditions are met. Deployed on a distributed ledger, smart contracts are immutable and fully open source, allowing users to audit them with the knowledge that they can’t be changed once they are live.

These smart contracts are facilitated by blockchains that have the capability to do so, such as Ethereum and the majority of third-generation distributed ledgers, including Cardano, Polkadot, Fantom, and Avalanche.

What Makes Quant Unique?

Quant is unique for many innovations, one of the best examples being mDApps. These multi-chain apps can be created on Quant’s Overledger OS, deploying a form of application that can make use of features of different blockchains.

An mDApp is made up of Treaty Contracts, which are pieces of code that run multiple smart contracts on different blockchains. The speed of the mDApp, often referred to as “multi-DLT smart contracts,” depends on the distributed ledger used to build it.

These mDApps and their data can be transacted on the Overledger Network Marketplace. These transactions are executed through the Treasury, a set of smart contracts built on Ethereum. The fee collected by the Treasury goes to the Quant Network.

Enterprise users use the Treasury to pay, in fiat, for licenses that are then used to purchase QNT tokens. For the entire duration of the license, these tokens are locked in the Treasury.

Like smart contracts, Quant can also take digital assets across multiple blockchains. Called multi-ledger tokens (MLTs), these digital assets are backed by funds held in escrow. MLTs can represent a variety of assets, including stablecoins, vouchers, loyalty points, and even central bank digital currencies. Quant has branded this service “Overledger Tokenise.”

Finally, Quant’s Overledger does not require any sort of modification to the base chain in order to use it. This makes it a very easy system to use. It is developer and user-friendly, meaning that enterprises don’t need specialist DLT staff to install and run it.

However, Overledger is not open-source and thus its inner workings aren’t auditable by the public.

How is the Quant Network Secured?

The Quant Network isn’t really a network in the way that other distributed ledgers are, so there isn’t really a specific consensus mechanism at play. However, its mDApps are built on and function across various blockchains. Therefore, they leverage the consensus and security that those blockchains provide.

Quant’s QNT token is also an Ethereum-based ERC-20 standard token, so QNT relies on Ethereum for its security and the validity of account balances.

Ethereum is currently secured by proof-of-work (PoW), similar to Bitcoin, which Quant can also connect to. PoW blockchains rely on computers (called miners) solving cryptographic puzzles of increasing difficulty and on other miners on the network verifying these solutions.

Each block on a blockchain contains the details of transactions processed during that time, as well as a cryptographic hash function of the previous block, creating an immutable chain.

However, other forms of distributed ledgers, such as directed acyclic graphs, do exist. Most DLT projects rely on a form of consensus for their security, and PoW is one example. Proof-of-stake, which Ethereum is transitioning to, is also a common consensus mechanism used by major DLT projects.

What is the Use of QNT?

QNT is the utility token of the Quant ecosystem. It is required for developers and enterprises in order to use the network.

These users purchase licenses via depositing fiat into the Quant treasury. These funds are used to purchase QNT tokens, which are locked away for a year in layer 2 payment channels.

Users of the network have to pay an annual fee in QNT tokens for running a gateway, in exchange for which they receive a cut of transaction fees going through them.

Who Controls Quant?

According to the Quant Network LinkedIn page, Quant is controlled by Quant Network, a private, London-based company with 77 employees.

Specializing in FinTech, Quant Network serves financial institutions, enterprises, and developers in the areas of IT integration, tokenization, payments, capital markets, supply chain, and trade finance.

Quant Network is headed by founder Gilbert Verdian, supported by COO Lara Verdian, CTO Peter Marirosans, Chief Product Officer Martin Hargreaves, and CMO Andrew Carrier. On Quant’s Board of Directors are Guy Dietrich, a managing director at Rockefeller Capital, and Comcast Vice Chairman Neil Smit.

How Much QNT Is In Circulation?

The maximum supply of QNT has been set at just over 14.6 million QNT, with 9.9 million sold to investors during its ICO.

Just over 12 million QNT are currently in circulation, with the remainder held by Quant Network. These tokens are, however, not vested and could be released to the market whenever the company deems it appropriate to sell or issue them.

How Do You Buy QNT?

QNT has been listed on several major exchange platforms, with Binance and Coinbase tending to account for around two-thirds of its liquidity.

Fiat trading pairs are popular with QNT traders, and both QNT/USD and QNT/EUR can be found depending on your exchange of choice. QNT can also be traded against major stablecoins like USDT and cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH.

Since QNT is an ERC-20 token, it is also available to purchase on decentralized exchanges using the Ethereum blockchain or its layer 2 chains.

Is It Possible to Buy Quant Instantly?

Purchasing any coin on a centralized exchange (CEX) platform is instant. However, CEXes and many other third-party crypto services are custodial in nature, which means that you cannot directly participate in the Quant ecosystem using an exchange account.

However, withdrawing QNT into your own Ethereum wallet may not be quite as quick. First, the CEX has to give your withdrawal the green light, which might entail KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures.

Then, the transaction may be processed further or wait to get into a batch for processing before it’s finally released onto the blockchain you choose to withdraw it onto.

How quickly the last part of the process is completed will depend on the blockchain used at the time. Purchasing on a DEX depends on the blockchain’s speed, too, but you won’t have to wait for anything else if you’re using a DEX.

How Do You Store QNT?

As mentioned, QNT is stored in Ethereum-compatible wallets. These can come in many forms, with one of the major distinctions being custodial versus non-custodial, or trusting a third party like a CEX to hold your coins for you versus keeping them safe yourself.

Beyond this, there are hot and cold wallets. Hot wallets connect to the internet and include exchange accounts as well as desktop clients and browser extension wallets. Cold wallets, on the other hand, stay offline, keeping your MANA safe from any online attacks.

Ledger is one of the most popular hardware storage solutions around, while Metamask and the GameStop Wallet are two of the top-rated Ethereum-compatible browser-extension hot wallets on the market.

Quant Energy Consumption

Quant Network, unlike many other companies in the cryptocurrency industry, hasn’t published any carbon footprint research and doesn’t point to any literature regarding the project’s energy efficiency.

They might have a good reason for this, too—Quant isn’t a blockchain network or any other sort of distributed ledger technology. Instead, it works with these distributed ledgers, allowing developers and enterprises to connect with them.

It could be argued that Quant is responsible for some amount of the blockchain’s energy consumption since QNT is an Ethereum-based token. It could also be argued that Quant is actively increasing the entire blockchain’s energy requirements by bringing more and more enterprise adoption.

If these arguments are to be given credence, then it must also be acknowledged that the vast majority of major cryptocurrencies out there either already use or are transitioning to consensus mechanisms that are far, far greener than most legacy technologies.

Is QNT a Good Investment?

Quant is an exciting project for many because it attempts to solve one of the biggest problems in distributed technology—interoperability—which many consider profound.

Many individual blockchain projects offer certain levels of interoperability, but few attempt to connect existing infrastructure to DLT as Quant does. This could give Quant a first-mover advantage in its niche.

However, Quant is also one of the most centralized projects around, and its technology is not open source. This, along with Quant Network’s focus on financial institutions and interest in CBDCs, puts it very much in the “establishment” corner, in contrast to many other projects that focus on ordinary people and the unbanked.

Furthermore, the QNT token itself may be considered by some to have limited use. Having said that, its tight supply of 14.6 million QNT, which is far smaller than Bitcoin, suggests that significant adoption of the Quant technology and an increase in license-buyers could lead to a major appreciation in price.