Quant and interoperability glossary

Overledger

Quant's core product: an API gateway and orchestration layer that lets an organisation's existing software read from and write to many distributed ledgers through one standard interface. It is not a blockchain and has no consensus mechanism. Announced in December 2017, it became a hosted Overledger Platform in June 2023. The Overledger page explains its layers, versions and deployments.

mDApp (multi-DLT application)

Quant's term for an application that is "cross-platform, multi-DLT, and no longer bound to any single blockchain". An mDApp can read state from one ledger and write to another through the Overledger API, for example checking a tokenised-deposit balance on a permissioned bank ledger and then settling an asset on a public chain, without containing chain-specific code itself.

Multi-ledger token

A token whose logic and ownership are coherent across several ledgers rather than tied to one. Quant's implementations are QRC tokens, deployed through Overledger Tokenise, and Fusion's unified tokens. Quant announced a Japanese patent for its "multi-DLT token" approach on 3 February 2026. The concept matters because tokenised deposits and bonds must often exist wherever counterparties happen to be.

QRC token

Quant's family of chain-agnostic smart-contract tokens. There are three types: Base (fungible), Flex (fungible with additional controls) and Vari (non-fungible). They are ERC-based, so they deploy on EVM networks such as Ethereum, Polygon and XDC without modification. The Tokenise feature, in beta from Overledger release 2.2.9 in April 2023, creates them through low-code flows.

uToken (unified token)

A unified token on Quant Fusion, written with a "u" prefix such as uUSDC or uBUIDL. It represents an asset across multiple ledgers without the lock-and-mint bridge contract that classic wrapped tokens rely on, which is the mechanism behind many of the industry's largest hacks. Quant's Fusion explainer of June 2026 describes the design; independent audits of it are not public.

Fusion (Layer 2.5)

Quant's multi-ledger rollup, announced in May 2025 and live on mainnet on 2 June 2026. It is an optimistic rollup extended from the OP Stack, with execution data on a permissioned Hyperledger Besu network and state roots posted to several Layer 1s. "Layer 2.5" is Quant's marketing term for a rollup built for institutions, with KYC'd operators, privacy controls and QNT as the fee token. See the ecosystem page.

Trusted Node

A KYC-verified operator that processes transactions on Quant Fusion and can select the jurisdictions it serves. Trusted Node operators are meant to stake QNT and earn rewards, which is the only form of QNT staking Quant has ever described. As of November 2026 the public parameters, including minimum stake, lock-up and yield, had not been published; the staking page tracks the status.

Gateway

In interoperability, a service that sits between an application and one or more ledgers, translating standard requests into native transactions and relaying results back. Overledger is a gateway; Overledger Network, launched in September 2021, allowed third-party gateways to join and relay traffic for Bitcoin, Ethereum and the XRP Ledger. The trade-off is that a gateway operator can see, delay or refuse transactions.

Sequencer

The component of a rollup that orders transactions before they are batched and posted to the parent chain. Whoever runs the sequencer controls ordering and can in principle censor or delay. On Quant Fusion, Quant Network Ltd is the sequencer, according to the Blockworks transparency filing; many public rollups also run a single sequencer today, with decentralisation planned rather than delivered.

Overledger Authorise

Quant's key-management and transaction-signing service for institutions, launched on 10 October 2023. It lets a bank sign blockchain transactions without exposing private keys to the application that requested them, using AWS KMS hardware security modules (FIPS 140-2 Level 2) and Fireblocks MPC according to the Blockworks filing. Quant markets it as "central-bank-grade" key management.

QuantNet

The "programmable settlement network" Quant announced in late September 2025, days after being selected for the UK tokenised sterling deposit project. In Quant's 2026 description of its stack, "Overledger connects, QuantNet establishes trust, Fusion controls": QuantNet is the settlement layer between the connectivity of Overledger and the execution of Fusion.

Quant Flow and PayScript

Quant Flow is a white-label programmable-money platform for banks and corporates, announced on 22 May 2025 and built on Overledger. Payment logic is written in PayScript, a domain-specific language whose specification is public on GitHub. Murex embedded Quant Flow and Overledger in its MX.3 platform in March 2026. The original /quant-flow/ web page returned a 404 in November 2026, suggesting the product has been folded into Quant's "programmable money" pages.

Licence fee (Overledger)

The charge for using the live Overledger platform. Announced on 10 December 2021 at £100 per year for customers and developers, payable in QNT, with the test platform free. Quant's current FAQ says the platform fee can be paid in USD or by subscribing with QNT, with pricing on request. This optional-payment detail is central to debates about QNT demand.

Quant Treasury

The mechanism described in Quant's 2020 Overledger Network paper for converting customers' fiat payments into QNT and operating payment channels with gateway operators. Third parties often repeat that licence QNT is "locked for 12 months", but Quant's current site does not state a lock period, so treat that as unverified. There is no protocol treasury controlled by token holders; QNT carries no governance rights.

DLT (distributed ledger technology)

The umbrella term for databases replicated across many participants who agree on updates without a single administrator. Blockchains are one kind of DLT; permissioned platforms such as Corda and Hyperledger Fabric are others and do not necessarily use blocks or public mining. Banks prefer "DLT" because it covers the private, regulated ledgers they actually use. ISO/TC 307 is the standards committee for "blockchain and distributed ledger technologies".

Interoperability

The ability of separate ledgers to exchange data, transfer assets and coordinate logic. Because each chain only recognises its own transactions, something must sit between them: a bridge, a cross-chain messaging protocol, a shared-security network or an API gateway. Each option is really a choice about whom you trust. Our interoperability explainer compares them.

Bridge

A mechanism for moving an asset between two chains, most commonly by locking it in a contract on the source chain and minting a wrapped copy on the destination. The lock contract and whoever controls it become a single point of failure, which is why bridges account for many of the largest crypto hacks. Quant's Fusion uses unified tokens specifically to avoid the lock-and-mint pattern.

Wrapped token

A token on one chain that represents an asset held on another, created by a bridge. Its value depends entirely on the bridge keeping the original locked; if the bridge is drained, every wrapped unit becomes unbacked at once. There is no official Quant-issued wrapped QNT; a third-party representation on Energi exists, but canonical QNT lives only on Ethereum.

CCIP

Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol: a messaging and token-transfer layer secured by decentralised oracle node sets, which any developer can integrate on-chain. It underpins Chainlink's work with Swift and the 50-bank Project Pangea announced in June 2026. CCIP is a public protocol paid for in LINK; Overledger is a licensed product, a contrast drawn out on the Quant vs Chainlink page.

IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication)

The protocol connecting sovereign app-chains in the Cosmos ecosystem. Each chain runs a light client of the other and verifies its block headers directly, so no third-party validator set sits in the middle. IBC is elegant inside Cosmos and harder to extend to chains that were not built for it, such as Bitcoin or a bank's permissioned network, which is the gap gateways target.

Oracle

A service that brings off-chain information, such as asset prices or proof of reserves, onto a blockchain so smart contracts can act on it. Chainlink is the largest oracle network and built CCIP on the same node infrastructure. Overledger is not an oracle; it moves transactions between ledgers rather than feeding external data into contracts, although the two can be combined in one application.

Rollup

A Layer-2 design that executes transactions off the main chain, batches them and posts compressed data or state roots back to a parent Layer 1 for security. Rollups inherit the parent chain's finality while offering lower fees and higher throughput. Quant Fusion is a rollup whose state roots are posted to several Layer 1s at once, which is what Quant means by "multi-ledger rollup".

Optimistic rollup

A rollup that assumes posted transactions are valid and allows a challenge window during which anyone can submit a fraud proof. The trade-off is a delayed final withdrawal to the parent chain, typically days. Fusion is an optimistic rollup extended from the OP Stack; the alternative family, zero-knowledge rollups, proves validity cryptographically instead of relying on challenges.

OP Stack

The open-source software stack originally developed for the Optimism rollup and used as a base by many other Layer-2 networks. Quant extended the OP Stack to build Fusion and maintains its own fork of op-geth, the execution client, on GitHub, where it was updated as recently as October 2026. Building on a widely used stack reduces novel code but also inherits its design choices.

Hyperledger Besu

An enterprise-grade Ethereum client maintained under the Hyperledger (now LF Decentralized Trust) umbrella, able to run both public Ethereum and permissioned networks. Quant Fusion stores its execution data on a permissioned Besu network, and LACChain in Latin America, which used Overledger as its gateway, also runs on Besu. Quant joined Hyperledger as a member in March 2019.

Corda

A permissioned distributed ledger platform developed by R3 and widely used by banks. It does not broadcast transactions to all participants; only the parties to a deal and a notary see them. R3 supplied the Corda-based ledger for the UK Regulated Liability Network experiment in 2024 while Quant supplied orchestration, and Overledger documented Corda as a supported permissioned platform.

Finality

The point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed. It differs by ledger: Bitcoin finality is probabilistic and grows with confirmations, a Corda transaction is final when the notary signs, and an optimistic rollup's withdrawal is final only after its challenge window. Interoperability layers must reconcile these differences, which is one reason Overledger exposes tracking endpoints rather than assuming one model.

ERC-20

The Ethereum token standard that defines a common interface for fungible tokens. QNT is an ERC-20 token at contract address 0x4a220E6096B25EADb88358cb44068A3248254675 with 18 decimals, no owner functions and no minting function. Because it is a standard ERC-20, QNT can be held in any Ethereum wallet and tracked on Etherscan; the transaction tracker shows live transfers.

Gas

The fee paid to a network to execute a transaction, denominated in that chain's native asset. Sending QNT on Ethereum costs gas in ETH, not QNT, because QNT is an ERC-20 token. On Quant Fusion, by contrast, QNT is designated as the gas and execution-fee token. Keep a small ETH balance in any wallet you use for QNT or transfers will fail.

Stablecoin

A token designed to hold a fixed value against a currency, usually backed by cash or short-term assets held by a private issuer. Ripple's RLUSD, issued on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, passed $2 billion in market cap in August 2026. Under MiCA, stablecoins are regulated as asset-referenced or e-money tokens. Stablecoins are liabilities of a private issuer, unlike tokenised deposits (bank liabilities) or CBDCs (central-bank liabilities).

CBDC (central bank digital currency)

A digital form of a national currency that is a direct liability of the central bank. Most retail designs are two-tier: the central bank runs the core ledger and private firms provide wallets. The Bank of England has not decided whether to issue a digital pound; the ECB targets a possible first digital euro issuance in 2029. Quant's role has been as a technology vendor in experiments, covered on the CBDC page.

Tokenised deposit

A commercial-bank deposit represented as a token on a ledger. It remains the bank's liability, regulated and protected as ordinary deposits are, but can be transferred, locked and programmed on-chain. The UK's tokenised sterling deposit pilot completed its first live customer transactions in September 2026 on a Quant-built platform, and The Clearing House's US initiative targets the first half of 2027.

RLN (Regulated Liability Network)

A concept for a shared ledger on which regulated liabilities, such as central-bank money, commercial-bank deposits and e-money, coexist and settle. The UK RLN experimentation phase in 2024 involved eleven participants including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, Mastercard and Visa, with R3 providing the Corda ledger and Quant the orchestration and API layer. UK Finance published its report in September 2024.

Project Rosalind

A 2022–2023 experiment by the BIS Innovation Hub London and the Bank of England that built an API layer for a retail CBDC, developing 33 API functionalities and exploring more than 30 use cases. The BIS names no vendors; Quant and UST announced their own roles on the vendor team. The BIS states the project was purely experimental and reflects no policy intention, so "Quant is building the digital pound" is not an accurate reading.

GBTD (Great British Tokenised Deposit)

UK Finance's pilot of tokenised sterling deposits, for which Quant was selected to build the platform in September 2025. Participants were Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander, joined by Monzo in January 2026. On 24 September 2026 UK Finance announced the first live customer transactions, including two remortgage completions with funds locked and auto-released and an online marketplace purchase.

ISO/TC 307

The International Organization for Standardization's technical committee on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, created in 2015 after a proposal that Quant's founder Gilbert Verdian says he initiated. Verdian also reports convening its interoperability working group, WG7, though ISO's committee page does not list convenor names. Its outputs include ISO/TS 23516:2026, the interoperability framework published in March 2026.

ISO/TS 23516

"Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Interoperability framework", a 24-page Technical Specification published by ISO/TC 307 in March 2026 (ISO page ID 82098, which is why some media call it "ISO 82098"). A Technical Specification is a step below a full International Standard. Whether Overledger is formally assessed against it is not stated in any source we could verify.

ISO 20022

The international standard for financial messaging, defining rich, structured data formats for payments, securities and trade. Swift and most major payment systems have migrated to it. Chainlink's Project Pangea uses Swift ISO 20022 messaging alongside CCIP, and Quant's bank integrations connect tokenised deposits to rails such as RTP, CHIPS and Faster Payments that speak it. It is unrelated to ISO/TC 307's blockchain standards.

Market capitalisation

The price of a token multiplied by its circulating supply. On 2 November 2026 QNT's market cap was about $2.9 billion on CoinGecko (rank 35) and $2.4 billion on CoinMarketCap (rank 36), the gap arising from different circulating-supply figures. Market cap, not unit price, is the right basis for comparing QNT with higher-supply tokens such as LINK or XRP. Live figures are on the price page.

Circulating supply

The number of tokens available to trade, excluding any locked, burned or unissued. For QNT, Etherscan and CoinGecko report about 14.56 million, while CoinMarketCap shows 12.07 million based on a MiCA white-paper figure that we treat as unverified. The difference is why market-cap rankings for QNT vary by a place or two between trackers.

Max supply

The largest number of tokens that can ever exist. QNT's is 14,612,493, fixed since 9,545,765 unsold sale tokens were burned on 14 September 2018; the contract has no minting function. Etherscan's "max total supply" field shows 45,467,000, the pre-burn contract value, because burned tokens sit in a burn address. The tokenomics page explains the figures.

Token burn

Permanently removing tokens from circulation by sending them to an address nobody controls. Quant burned 9,545,765.95 QNT on 14 September 2018, the tokens left unsold after its April 2018 sale, reducing total supply to 14,612,493. No further burn mechanism exists; QNT supply does not fall with usage, unlike some networks that burn a share of fees.

ATH (all-time high)

The highest price an asset has ever traded at. QNT's all-time high was $428.45 on 11 September 2021 per Coinbase ($427.42 on CoinGecko). The distance from ATH is a common, if crude, sentiment gauge; QNT spiked to about $373 intraday on 27 September 2026 after The Clearing House announcement before falling back to around $195 the next day.

Spread

The gap between the best bid (highest buy order) and best ask (lowest sell order) on an exchange. A tight spread signals deep liquidity; a wide one means you pay more to enter and exit. Mid-cap tokens such as QNT typically have wider spreads than XRP or LINK, especially outside the largest venues. Compare spreads, not just headline fees, when choosing where to buy.

Maker / taker fees

Exchange fee tiers based on whether an order adds liquidity (a maker order that rests on the book) or removes it (a taker order that fills immediately). Makers usually pay less. Using limit orders rather than market orders on a thin-liquidity token can save a meaningful amount on fees and slippage. Fee schedules differ by venue; see the exchanges page.

Limit order

An instruction to buy or sell only at a specified price or better, as opposed to a market order that executes immediately at whatever price is available. On a volatile, mid-cap token a market order can fill well away from the last traded price; a limit order caps that risk at the cost of possibly not filling. Most exchanges charge lower maker fees for limit orders.

ETP (exchange-traded product)

A security listed on a traditional stock exchange that tracks the price of an underlying asset, allowing investors to gain exposure through a brokerage account rather than holding the token directly. ETPs carry issuer and custody arrangements of their own and trade only in market hours. Our research does not confirm any QNT-specific ETP; check your broker and the issuer's documentation before assuming one exists.

ISIN

International Securities Identification Number, the twelve-character code that uniquely identifies a security such as a share, bond or ETP. Tokens themselves do not have ISINs; an ETP tracking a token does. If someone quotes an "ISIN for QNT", they mean a listed product, not the ERC-20 token. Note too that the stock ticker QNT belongs to Quantinuum, a quantum-computing company listed on Nasdaq in June 2026, which is unrelated to Quant Network; see QNT stock vs token.

Custody

Who holds the private keys that control a token. On an exchange, the exchange has custody and you hold a claim against it; in a self-custody wallet, you hold the keys and bear the responsibility. Exchange hot-wallet hacks at LCX (January 2022) and Bitrue (April 2023) cost users QNT that the exchanges held; the QNT contract itself has never been compromised.

Hardware wallet

A physical device that stores private keys offline and signs transactions internally, so the keys never touch an internet-connected computer. Because QNT is a standard ERC-20 token, any hardware wallet that supports Ethereum can hold it. It is the usual recommendation for long-term holdings of any size; our wallets page compares the options.

Seed phrase

A list of 12 or 24 words generated when a wallet is created, from which all its private keys can be derived. Anyone with the phrase controls the funds. It should be written down and stored offline, never typed into a website, and never shared with anyone claiming to be support. Requests for a seed phrase are the universal signature of a scam.

KYC (know your customer)

The identity-verification process regulated firms must perform before providing services, typically requiring ID documents and proof of address. Exchanges apply it to retail users; Quant applies it to Fusion's Trusted Node operators; the 2018 QNT token sale itself used a KYC/AML whitelist. KYC is also what distinguishes Quant's permissioned model from permissionless protocols with anonymous validators.

MiCA

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (2023/1114). Stablecoin rules applied from 30 June 2024 and the rules for service providers and other crypto-assets from 30 December 2024, with national grandfathering ending by 1 July 2026 at the latest. QNT is an "other crypto-asset" under Title II, not a stablecoin. Any exchange serving EU customers must now hold a MiCA licence; the is Quant legit page covers the detail.

CASP (crypto-asset service provider)

MiCA's term for a firm authorised to provide crypto services in the EU, such as running a trading platform, exchanging crypto for fiat or providing custody. Authorisation by one national authority passports across the EU. ESMA maintains an interim register of CASPs and of non-compliant entities. Since 1 July 2025 in the Netherlands and the end of 2025 in Germany, firms need a MiCA licence rather than older national registrations.

FCA

The UK Financial Conduct Authority. Since 8 October 2023 all crypto marketing to UK consumers must comply with its financial-promotion regime, with risk warnings, a ban on referral bonuses and a 24-hour cooling-off period for first-time investors. Quant Network Ltd is not FCA-authorised and not on the cryptoasset register; since July 2025 it is a PSD agent of Yapily Connect for read-only account-information services only.

MSB (money services business)

The US federal registration category, administered by FinCEN, for businesses that exchange or transmit money, which includes most crypto exchanges serving US customers. MSB registration is an anti-money-laundering obligation, not a licence that vouches for an exchange's solvency or conduct, and most US states require separate money-transmitter licences on top of it. Check both when evaluating a venue.

Airdrop scam

A fraud in which a website or social post promises free tokens ("QNT airdrop", "QNT rewards", "treasury claim") and asks you to connect a wallet or sign a message to claim them. Quant has never announced an airdrop. Known lookalike domains have impersonated quant.network to run these schemes. The signature or approval you give hands control of your assets to a drainer contract.

Drainer

Malicious code, usually behind a fake claim or mint page, that uses a wallet signature or token approval you granted to transfer your assets out. Drainers do not need your seed phrase; a single approve transaction is enough. Protection is behavioural: never connect a wallet to a site reached from an unsolicited link, read what you are signing, and revoke old approvals periodically.

Escrow (XRP)

On-ledger contracts in which Ripple locked a large part of its XRP holdings, releasing up to one billion XRP per month with unused amounts re-locked. Roughly 31–34 billion XRP remained escrowed in late 2026. QNT has no escrow, inflation or vesting: its supply has been fixed since 2018. The contrast is drawn out on the Quant vs XRP page.

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