The Japan Exchange Group (JPX) has formed a consortium between several companies within its umbrella to test a blockchain market infrastructure proof-of-concept.

JPX announced today that the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Exchange, alongside the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation, would test the prototype collaboratively. In February, JPX announced that it was working with IBM’s Japanese division to test blockchain, using the tech firm’s Fabric blockchain platform as a basis for experimentation.

The newly announced initiative builds on that early partnership. The Tokyo Stock Exchange will jointly develop what JPX called a “test environment” with IBM Japan, after which they and other JPX firms will begin testing. JPX said that the trial is set to begin next spring.

In a statement, JPX said that it would seek to attract other stakeholders – including those that actually conduct trades on the exchanges – to the consortium, with an eye to expand its membership within Japan. JPX said that it would begin soliciting new members at the beginning of 2017.

The firm said:

“We will seek participation from a wide range of Japanese financial institutions in order to gather broad industrial expertise. Members of the consortium will conduct PoC testing and discuss the applicability of DLT to the capital market infrastructure, both from technical and operational perspectives.”

According to JPX, the ecosystem it wants to explore would included roles for securities companies, the exchanges and technology vendors that would actually develop the systems. The group said today that it envisions applications being built on top of Fabric by the exchanges or other institutions that become involved.

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