- Quorum has been acquired by ConsenSys, who have taken it off JPMorgan’s hands
- The bank developed the Ethereum spinoff in 2016
- The enterprise-level blockchain will still be used by the bank and other entities
ConsenSys has acquired JPMorgan’s Ethereum spinoff blockchain platform Quorum six months after the move was first mooted. Reutuers revealed the deal yesterday after first reporting a possible merger between ConsenSys and Quorum back in February. JPMorgan will also make a strategic investment in ConsenSys as part of the deal, although details have not been made public, and the two companies will continue to work together on this and other projects in the future.
ConsenSys has acquired Quorum! Through this acquisition and investment from JP Morgan, we will continue to drive adoption and innovation through an open source protocol layer on which production-ready business applications can be built. #WelcomeQuorum https://t.co/YGBrAiprpt pic.twitter.com/cNWe28roDA
— ConsenSys (@Consensys) August 25, 2020
Quorum Powers JPMorgan’s Blockchain Offering
JPMorgan began building the Quorum blockchain internally in 2016 as a spinoff of the Ethereum network, seeing it as an enterprise version of the smart contract platform. It underpins the bank’s Interbank Information Network (IIN), a payment network that involves more than 300 banks, as well as other inter-bank projects. Quorum also powers the bank’s JPMCoin, which was announced in February last year.
Quorum is also used by other big players such as Microsoft, Covantis, and the South African Reserve Bank, all of which will continue to use Quorum after ConsenSys takes control of the platform. JPMorgan will work with ConsenSys over the next year to help the Quorum transition run smoothly and will later work on other blockchain projects together, according to Umar Farooq, JPMorgan’s Global Head of Blockhain.
ConsenSys Grows Into Serious Blockchain Player
ConsenSys has grown from being one of the many projects that emerged during the 2017 cryptocurrency bubble to being a prominent player in the blockchain space, having undergone a restructuring earlier this year to separate its software development business from its venture activities.
