[UPDATE: Comments from a BNP Paribas spokeswoman since received by IB Times state that the bank “is looking at blockchain technology and how it can be applied to post trade processes to make things faster and potentially cheaper,” but stopped short of intimating any direct interaction. “… [I]t's all very much projects and it's all in testing. It's nothing live,” she added.]

Original article:

BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, is set to announce it is adding Bitcoin to one of its currency funds in the coming weeks.

A source for the International Business Times told the publication that “beta testing” of the technology had been taking place and that the news was due go public officially shortly.

While BNP Paribas has so far not confirmed it is using Bitcoin in any capacity, an article in the bank’s Quintessence magazine described the technology as being able to make certain industry sectors “redundant,” while arguing that the blockchain “should be considered to be an invention like the steam or combustion engine.”

“Bitcoin has solved a technical challenge and the currency it hosts has been successful so far,” author Johann Palychata summarized, adding that “It remains to be proven if scale can be obtained and costs managed to allow for a true revolution” when it comes to blockchain-related projects. The article is currently the most read throughout the magazine’s online portal.

BNP Paribas became the second French banking institution to nod to Bitcoin this week after the country’s third-largest bank, Société Générale, published a job offer calling for an IT developer on bitcoin, blockchains and cryptocurrencies.

Cointelegraph also reported on the Tunisian government as it announced it was looking for an intern in its Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy in order to explore both Bitcoin and blockchain technology.