ConsenSys acquiring JPMorgan’s Quorum enterprise blockchain solution

Ethereum-focused enterprise blockchain development firm ConsenSys announced that it will acquire JPMorgan’s Quorum distributed ledger solution.

According to an announcement published by Consensys on August 25, the Brooklyn-based Ethereum venture studio is taking over Quorum development as part of a strategic investment in the firm by JPMorgan.

ConsenSys’ acquisition of Quorum does not come as a surprise. As Modern Consensus previously reported, rumors concerning the deal have been circulating since February. Other than developing and maintaining the codebase, ConsenSys now also provides a subscription-based support service for firms using Quorum.

The solution—now known as ConsenSys Quorum—-is an open source protocol based on Ethereum that is meant to enable businesses to build public or private blockchains. Such blockchains can be used for asset tokenization and management, payments, document management, workflow optimization and risk compliance.

“The creation of Quorum was a first for JPMorgan, both in terms of developing its own blockchain protocol, and open sourcing software for the developer community,” said Umar Farooq, global head of blockchain at JPMorgan. “We’re incredibly proud of the usage of Quorum over the past few years and are excited to have ConsenSys as a partner to take the vision forward.”

JPMorgan will continue to run its Interbank Information Network using the JPM Coin token that made such a splash when it was announced in February 2019.

Quorum will be compatible with Ethereum mainnet

Moving forward with Quorum development, ConsenSys plans to make “unifying” the GoQuorum client with its Hyperledger Besu Ethereum mainnet client a priority, ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin said in the release. This will “align the development of both private-permissioned and mainnet-compatible enterprise solutions.”

ConsenSys also announced plans to develop a suite of Quorum-based products meant to provide the means for firms to develop blockchain solutions customized for their needs. Those products will be available in the firm’s blockchain module repository Codefi Orchestrate. The modules are meant to cut on development time by allowing the developers to integrate them into their project instead of programming the features themselves.

ConsenSys plans to expand Quorum and make it more customizable. In its current form, the platform already managed to attract some attention from firms looking to integrate blockchain technology in their business.

At the end of 2018, a group of leading healthcare firms decided to use Quorum to run a joint database for medical professionals. The idea behind the project is that the high cost of keeping federally mandated databases of information about doctors can be decreased by sharing information by different health insurance firms across a distributed ledger. Other users include luxury goods company LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey and Vakt, the oil and gas industry consortium that counts Shell, BP, and banks ING and ABM Amro as partners.