JP Morgan Attracts 75 Banks in Its Ethereum-based Trial Project

In October 2017, JP Morgan launched the Interbank Information network as a blockchain experiment. The purpose of the project is to minimize the current number of parties needed for making an international bank transaction.

The blockchain protocol, called Quorum, was developed by JP Morgan in partnership with EthLab. In April 2017, the largest bank in the US closed the bank in-centric blockchain consortium R3, as it decided to focus on the creation of its own blockchain.

Today, JP Morgan, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and their new partner - 75 of the largest banks in the world, join forces against R3.

The trial aims to trace the feasibility of a single common ledger that is accessible to all participating banks. Furthermore, it aims to provide a solution that involves fewer participants in a simple cross-border payment chain.

By using bistro accounts and other financial partnerships, one payment can be made with 3 or 4 brokerage firms. Thanks to blockchain technology, one payment will receive instant communication and quick resolution of conflicts, which in some cases takes up to 2 weeks.

The blockchain solution is specially prepared to deal with issues arising in the banking sector.

Jason Goldberg – JP Morgan banks' analyst, shared that payments are the segment that banks are most concerned about losing. Through blockchain technology, this will be retained more in-house.

The Interbank Information Network allows peer-to-peer financial messaging that successfully competes with the most used global payment system SWIFT.

With 78 banks connected on the network, 14,500 USD payments are expected to be executed on a daily basis. The future plans of the project include the option to complete payments in other currencies.