ConsenSys, the blockchain software company, has announced that it has taken over Quorum, which was introduced by JP Morgan in 2016. Both the firms have a history of collaboration after taking the lead in creating the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. The main aim was to bring the Hyperledger Besu, a Mainnet Ethereum client, to the Linux Foundation. The two firms had also worked together on industry applications like Komgo & Covantis built on the Quorum.
For JP Morgan, the development of Quorum was a landmark achievement as it managed to build its blockchain protocol and open-sourcing software. JP Morgan has declared that it is fully satisfied with Quorum’s usage over all these years, and they are hopeful that the alliance with ConsenSys would be beneficial to both parties.
JP Morgan has also made a strategic investment in the Brooklyn based technology startup ConsenSys. Still, none of the companies have disclosed the deal’s financial details, but it is assumed that it is no less than USD 50 million. ConsenSys did reveal that it was raising funds, and there is a slew of investors who are willing to join the megabank. The Quorum team is slated to be stationed at JP Morgan to help with the transition over the next year and then work on the other blockchain projects.
The deal states that ConsesSys will merge the existing protocol engineering roadmap with Quorum, thereby using the best of both codebases. Quorum will continue to remain open-source and will become interoperable with the other blockchain products. ConsenSys, in an interview, said that the best part of the deal is the JP Morgan will get support in all its blockchain efforts.