Canadian Mint wants to sell digital currency creation
The Royal Canadian Mint has decided to end its experiment with digital currency and wants to sell the technology it developed to a private company, according to multiple media reports.
The MintChip cryptocurrency is linked to the Canadian dollar and is designed for low-value online, mobile and physical payments. The Mint recently piloted the currency with 200 employees at its Ottawa and Winnipeg offices.
The Mint had installed Ingenico's IWL220B contactless card readers in its cafeterias, enabling pilot participants to pay for purchases using MintChip via NFC-enabled BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
A Mint spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal the organization believed MintChip had matured to the point where it could sell the technology to a private company.
"The Mint is currently working with the Department of Finance to explore divestiture options," the spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. "The Mint is also in the process of completing development of MintChip to package the assets for divestiture."