JP Morgan, Santander Said to Join New Ethereum Blockchain Group

New details have emerged about a soon-to-be-launched initiative focused on enterprise uses of the ethereum protocol.

Dubbed Enterprise Ethereum, the project's founding membership is said to include major financial institutions, tech giants and natural resources companies. According to sources, participating firms include JP Morgan, CME Group, BNY Mellon, Banco Santander, Microsoft, Red Hat, Cisco, Wipro and British Petroleum, among others.

Blockchain startups BlockApps, Brainbot Technologies, ConsenSys, Nuco and Tendermint – as well as the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit that oversees its code creation – are also said to be involved.

Many of the companies on the list above have already worked with ethereum, such as JPMorgan, which has developed several projects based on that codebase. Notably, Enterprise Ethereum appears to include both existing and former stakeholders in the R3 blockchain consortium.

The initiative is perhaps the most significant to date in terms of enterprise interest and the scale of development being discussed. It also signals a deepening of interest among financial firms in the ethereum platform, albeit one focused in part on implementations that are separate yet compatible with the public ethereum network.

What's more, sources say that members plan to work on initiatives that would relate to both the public ethereum network as well as permissioned or private version.

More companies are expected to join the effort, sources suggest.

First reported

by CoinDesk last month, the goal of the effort is to create a developmental foundation for working on ethereum implementations outside of the main public network. (Enterprise Ethereum is described as more of a technology standard than a specific network or product).

Representatives for Accenture, Brainbot, BlockApps, JPMorgan and Red Hat declined to comment.

"There will be an announcement in the near future," BlockApps' James Moreau said. 

When reached, a BNY Mellon representative also indicated that some kind of announcement is forthcoming.

"BNY Mellon is taking a number of steps to use distributed ledger technology. We continue to explore and participate in various initiatives some that we may be announcing in the near future," the representative told CoinDesk.

While in development, Enterprise Ethereum's supporters are said to be planning to create a non-profit entity.

Further, it is said Enterprise Ethereum will be based on a membership model, incorporating working groups focused on governance, technical development and industry collaboration.