JPMorgan in partnership with digital currency firm

JPMorgan Chase has announced a partnership with Zerocoil Electric Coin Company (ZECC), which has introduced Zcash, which is described as a privacy coin, on the lines of bitcoin. The partnership will provide for the US bank to use Zcash’s privacy technology in Quorum, an enterprise blockchain platform that the bank has built on Ethereum, a network similar to bitcoin’s but focused on smart contracts. Quorum, which already features private smart contracts, will now be able to ensure private settlement of digitized assets on a distributed ledger. JPMorgan said adding Zcash’s zero-knowledge security layer into Quorum would help it to explore how state of the art cryptographic privacy technology will enhance the next generation of financial services applications. The advantage for Zcash is that it is a true digital equivalent of cash which leaves no room for tracking transactions, unlike bitcoin whose transactions can be tracked. Quorum is designed for the institutional financial markets and commercial confidentiality is a key requirement for companies that trade in those markets.