Banking giant JP Morgan Chase is considering merging its proprietary blockchain Quorum with Consensys, a startup working on decentralized technology.
Reported by Reuters on Tuesday, the talks are still in the early stage,s and the companies are considering to announce the deal in the next six months publicly.
The anonymous sources of the publication pointed out that the financial terms of the deal are still unclear, and also the fate of 25 employees of the bank working on blockchain technology has not been decided.
Though the head of the Wall Street giant was critical about Bitcoin, the bank was at the forefront of blockchain development.
An in-house blockchain of the bank
Quorum was developed using Ethereum blockchain, and JP Morgan runs various networks on it. The bank’s blockchain-based inter-bank payment network Interbank, Information Network, also uses Quorum, and it has added more than 300 banks globally.
The bank’s proposed digital currency JPM Coin also is said to be issued on Quorum. The bank is aligning to launch a trial with its digital currency, which can be used only within its ecosystem.
Reuters also outlined that the merger will not impact the ongoing projects involving the blockchain.
ConsenSys was started by Joseph Lubin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, with his own funds, which he received from Ethereum, but the Brooklyn-based company’s business was massively hit by the bear in the cryptocurrency market, especially when the value of Ether plummeted.
The startup has reportedly shed 14 percent of its workforce recently following the separation of its development business from its venture initiatives. The blockchain company also shut its operations in India and the Philippines recently, sacking all the staff from the two offices.
Meanwhile, the company is aiming to raise $200 million; however, not much about its development has been reported in public.
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