Terra, a blockchain company building a payment system powered by its price-stable cryptocurrency, today announced a partnership with Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar to utilize its blockchain technology and change how Mongolian citizens pay for goods and services. Terra’s payment solution will first launch in Ulaanbaatar City’s Nalaikh District through a pilot program, with plans to expand citywide.
Mongolia’s fintech market is still in its early stages, but has recently experienced a series of successful IPOs from local startups that display the market’s rising potential. As a reaction to this success, the Mongolian government has implemented progressive regulations that intend to facilitate the growth of startups and fintech, such as the Central Bank of Mongolia approving the launch of its first national digital currency license. With the support of the government, Terra aims to reinvent payments and banking in Mongolia by simplifying and securing the payment process with the click of a button, and providing other financial services such as fast and low-cost remittance and lending.
The partnership aims to reform the largely cash-based infrastructure of Mongolia by enabling more transparent and convenient digital payments. The pilot program in Nalaikh City will launch with two main features: peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to allow instant transfer among users of different banks, and mobile payments to build the infrastructure for secure, contactless payments. As an immediate next step, Terra will work with local government to replace the payment method of utility bills and government subsidies with its stablecoin.
Terra is becoming the first widely adopted price-stable cryptocurrency through its ever-growing alliance of partners, which includes eCommerce giants in Asia-Pacific such as TMON(Korea), Baemin (Korea), Carouell (Singapore), and Tiki (Vietnam). The capital city of Mongolia is the latest addition and first government to join alliance partners who will integrate Terra’s payment solution to their platforms. To date, the Terra Alliance has a collective annual transaction volume of $25 billion and 40 million customers, setting the stage for Terra to reach mainstream consumers at a massive scale.
“Facilitating P2P and recurring utility payments with Terra are important first steps towards building a blockchain-based financial infrastructure in Mongolia,” said Daniel Shin, Co-founder of Terra. “From there, we will build out a wider range of financial services, reforming the remittance, loan, and overall banking industry. We are extremely honored to work closely with the Mongolian government and look forward to the launch of Terra in Ulaanbaatar.”
“We believe this pilot program with Terra will reform how the people of Nalaikh City make everyday payments. It will contribute to the development and enrichment of the nation’s digital payment infrastructure, while creating a new online platform to easily share information and offering great opportunities to connect with our citizens through advanced technology. We look forward to becoming the first customers of this blockchain payment system and setting into motion financial reform in the capital city,” said Radnaabazar Choijinsambuu, Governor, Nalaikh District of the Capital City.
The pilot program is set to launch within the next 6 months. A special task force made of key players from Terra, Nalaikh District, and XGround – a fintech company with a strong base in Mongolia – will oversee the initiative.
