What is Quant?

Quant (QNT) is a multi-purpose cryptocurrency that works as a key to access the Quant Network suite of applications, including Overledger, the world’s first blockchain operating system that connects blockchains and facilitates the creation of Internet-scale multi-chain applications.

QNT is an ERC-20-compliant token that powers Quant Network’s suite of enterprise software solutions. It is compatible with the Ethereum network and can be used to pay licence, platform, developer, user, and consumption fees; users may also buy multi-chain applications (MApps).

A brief history of Quant

In January 2018, Quant released a white paper that explains the inner workings of its proposed Overledger blockchain operating system. Quant founders Gilbert Verdian, Paolo Tasca, and Colin Paterson wrote the white paper, along with Gaetano Mondelli. Before becoming CEO of Quant, Verdian was Chief Information Officer of Vocalink, a Mastercard company.

In April 2018, following a presale of 15 million QNT tokens valued at US$15 million, Quant conducted a public sale for its cryptocurrency. The project was able to raise US$11 million worth of QNT tokens.

Quant released Overledger 1.0 in June 2020 as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product that released an experimental set of technologies to the community in the form of ‘Overledger Gateways’ for testing and feedback. The project then launched Overledger 1.5 in January 2021, which gave the service mainnet access on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Ledger, as well as integrated compliance checking for access to other mainnets. In June 2021, Overledger 2.0 went live with a simple and standard interface to access all supported blockchains.

How Quant works

Quant addresses one of the most pressing issues confronting the distributed ledger technology (DLT) field today: a lack of interoperability. The market has thousands of DLTs. However, the ability of these DLT-based data storages to communicate with one another is severely constrained. This results in information islands, increased developer burden, and technical barriers.

Quant solves these issues by connecting public and private networks using proprietary software called Overledger. This protocol allows for smooth multi-chain communication. As a result, developers may use Quant to create more powerful and resilient applications.

Motivated to remove communication barriers across blockchains, the Overledger team used TCP/IP models in communication networks as inspiration to build an architecture that enables interoperability and scaling, while also supporting MApps operating as decentralised apps (dapps) on several distinct ledgers.

The developers determined that organising it based on the layers that conduct particular jobs was the best method in order to meet the platform’s goals, leaving Overledger with multiple layers, such as a transaction layer and a messaging one.

Quant, a platform built on Ethereum that is compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem, presents a modular design at the application layer that does not interface with numerous ledgers of other blockchains; instead, the system runs independently of networks. Quant, an off-chain solution, ‘has vertical scalability and is future proof,’ according to its developers.

Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, unfortunately, still lack seamless interoperability, both inside internal ledgers and across external networks. Quant intends to fill this void as a blockchain’s ‘missing link’. Businesses won’t be limited to accessing a single blockchain using Quant, but its applications may incorporate and provide various features from any blockchains to which the platform offers access.

Quant delivers many features and perks that set it apart from the competition. It is built from the bottom up to eliminate any technical impediments to DLT integrations. The protocol is straightforward to set up — To build up their network, users do not need to be familiar with smart contract languages, cryptography, or DLT data structures, and the interface decreases the overall technical complexity of the procedure.

What is Quant (QNT) used for?

As the official crypto token of the Quant Network, QNT gives its holders digital access to the network’s applications and services, including the Quant Overledger Network, the Overledger DLT Gateway, and Quant’s dapps. Developers and enterprises who use the Quant Network pay consumption fees to the Quant Treasury account, based on the equivalent price in QNT tokens.