Bitcoin Daily: JPMorgan May Merge Quorum With ConsenSys; New Canadian Stablecoin Aims At Cross-Border Payments

JPMorgan Chase’s marquee blockchain unit, Quorum, will merge with Brooklyn-based startup ConsenSys, according to sources familiar with the inner workings of the deal. The deal will be announced sometime within the first half of 2020, and financial terms were still unclear on Tuesday.

There are 25 employees for Quorum currently, and they may or may not join the ConsenSys team.

Blockchain emerged a decade ago as a software for the tracking of cryptocurrency transactions. JPMorgan built Quorum using the Ethereum network, and the merger with ConsenSys, which grew rapidly in blockchain circles in 2017, was chosen as the way to best move forward.

Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance has added support for the Russian ruble in its trading services with bitcoin as well as others like Ether, Tether and Binance coin. The move comes as the service attempts to build out its business in the major market.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said the P2P trading provides flexibility and an open marketplace for trading, and he is happy to have the Russian currency on board for the future.

Regulators have been skeptical of Russia’s presence in the market, but the country has a prominent weight in the crypto-sphere, boasting a huge software developer community, and it had a popular base for ICO projects in Moscow in 2018, according to Quartz.

Meanwhile, a new stablecoin pegged to the Canadian dollar may help to digitize North America’s financial market. Canada Stablecorp says its new QCAD “stablecoin” could help to do that.

Canada Stablecorp, a collaboration between cryptoasset manager 3iQ, which recently got the green light to launch a bitcoin fund, and blockchain development firm Mavennet Systems, said QCAD is both a means of payment and a settlement solution — it will allow users to trade, to take positions against other stablecoins and generally to act as a medium of both exchange and value.

And, a collaboration between blockchain payment services provider BitPay with open commerce platform Poynt is poised to let consumers pay at point-of-sales locations with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

They’ll also have the ability to use Ethereum, Bitcoin cash and three-dollar pegged stablecoins.

The integration of the blockchain payment systems with Poynt smart terminals will allow for a quick and seamless checkout process.