Dirham Stablecoin DRAM Reaches Uniswap, Research on Restarted Distributed Technologies
A former MIT graduate and SoftBank executive has launched a dirham-backed stablecoin aimed at giving hyperinflation-stricken countries exposure to assets tied to the UAE's native currency.
Cointelegraph caught up with Akshay Naheta, founder and CEO of Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), following the announcement of the DRAM stablecoin listed on October 3 by decentralized finance protocols Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
The Abu Dhabi-based company is developing technology for a stablecoin backed by the dirham from October 2022. In 2019, Naheta re-launched DTR in power, which he helped co-found in Switzerland.
DRAM is an Ethereum ERC-20 token issued by DRAM Trust. The organization is said to be a Hong Kong trust governed by an independent trustee responsible for approving the token mint and burn, licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
As it stands, DTR cannot offer DRAM in Hong Kong or the United Arab Emirates, but Naheta indicated that talks are underway to offer token liquidity for listing on central exchanges outside of the two jurisdictions.
Regulatory measures require a reserve of fiat dirhams to be held before DRAM tokens can be issued, with reserves said to be held by regulated financial institutions.
The DRAM website provides links to stablecoin modern contract addresses for Ethereum, BNB and Arbitrum. The ETH token contract reflects a maximum supply of 2 million DRAM at the time of publication, while the ARB contract reflects 499,999 DRAM and the BNB contract holds 2.5 million DRAM.
A background search by Cointelegraph previously disclosed a Swiss distributed technologies research four years ago.
The foundation developed a decentralized payment system called Unit-E, which was designed and developed by a number of academics and developers in partnership and with grants from top academic institutions including Stanford, MIT and the University of Illinois.
Cointelegraph confirmed that Naheta was involved in founding DTR during his tenure at Softbank. The DTR Unit-E project was a decentralized payment network built by a Berlin-based development team.
In the year Back in 2019, the first ambition was to disrupt payments and create a highly cost-effective protocol.
Naheta shared the details of the company's efforts in a “previous incarnation” of the Unit-E protocol, which was reviewed by researchers at the University of Illinois. The team now building the DRAM stablecoin has about 30 permanent employees and contractors.
Naheta said that while DTR is unable to market DRAM in the UAE, the firm expects demand from companies in the region that are struggling with high inflation and currency issues.
“The relationship with AED (dirham) is the strong performance and attractiveness of the UAE economy and the desire to find stable digital asset investment options around this region.”
The UAE has emerged as a hub for the fledgling cryptocurrency and the wider Web3 space due to its favorable regulatory framework to encourage financial innovation and adoption of digital assets.
The likes of Coinbase and other major exchanges have been openly talking about future operations when industry heavyweight Binance opened in Dubai.
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