JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and others are rumored to be launching the largest "Enterprise Ethereum" project

New details have been released about an upcoming project that aims to bring enterprise-grade use of Ethereum to the masses.

The project is called “Enterprise Ethereum” and the founding members are said to include some large financial institutions, technology giants and startups. According to sources, participating companies include JPMorgan Chase, CME Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Santander, Microsoft, Red Hat, Cisco, Wipro and BP.

Blockchain startups BlockApps, Brainbot Technologies, ConsenSys, Nuco and Tendermint, as well as the Ethereum Foundation, are also involved in the project.

Many of the above companies have already started researching Ethereum, including JPMorgan Chase, which has developed multiple projects based on the Ethereum code. Notably, Enterprise Ethereum also appears to include some current and former members of the R3 blockchain consortium.

The project is perhaps the most notable to date in terms of corporate interest and the scale of development being discussed, and it also shows that financial companies are taking a deeper interest in the ethereum platform, although most of these companies are working on independent private ethereum implementations that are compatible with the public ethereum network.

What’s more, there are reports that project members plan to work on both public and permissioned (or private) Ethereum networks.

Sources said more companies are expected to join.

As previously reported by Coindesk, the project aims to create a development foundation for ethereum implementations outside of the public ethereum network (Enterprise Ethereum is more of a technical standard than a specific network or product).

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

James Moreau of BlockApps said:

“It will be announced soon.”

The representative told CoinDesk:

“Bank of America Merrill Lynch is undertaking various initiatives using distributed ledger technology. We continue to explore and participate in various projects, which we will announce in the near future.”

Although currently in the works, Enterprise Ethereum backers are said to be planning to create a non-profit entity.

In addition, it is said that Enterprise Ethereum will be based on a membership model and will absorb research teams from fields such as governance, technology development and industry cooperation.