JP Morgan Chase exits R3 blockchain consortium
JP Morgan Chase has finally bid farewell to the R3 blockchain consortium as it pursues its own interests.
As Banking Technology reported in November, JP Morgan was understood to be in the “leave” camp as it opted out of a fundraising effort for R3.
R3 had initially planned to raise $200 million from its members and give them a 90% stake in a new company. In November, it lowered this target and said members would get a 60% stake in R3.
R3 has now confirmed JP Morgan’s exit to Reuters. JP Morgan declined to comment.
“JP Morgan parted ways with R3 to pursue a very distinct technology path which is at odds with the one chosen by the global financial services industry, represented by our 80-plus members,” says Charley Cooper, managing director at R3.
JP Morgan’s departure is part of an exodus – as it follows in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, Santander, Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank (NAB) – who all decided to abandon R3 and pursue their own blockchain interests.
In October, it was reported that JP Morgan was developing its own blockchain, called Quorum, on the Ethereum network.
While in March this year, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Intel, JP Morgan and Microsoft were some of the big names behind the launch of a new blockchain alliance to rival R3.
Called the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), it plans to drive Ethereum blockchain technology best practices – “focusing on security, privacy, scalability and interoperability”.
The departed
The departure is a setback for R3, but it has been active elsewhere.
It partnered with Acord (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) to launch a virtual “centre of excellence” for distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the insurance industry.
R3, together with five of its members and financial resource management specialist HQLAX, built a collateral lending solution for liquidity transfers.
Also, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) became the first US regulatory agency to join R3.
