Japanese financial services company Mizuho Financial Group and IBM are working on a pilot project to test the feasibility of using blockchains as virtual currency in the organization’s settlement business. Mizuho will be exploring how payments can be instantaneously swapped, potentially leading to new financial services.

Mizuho is working with the newly-opened IBM Bluemix Garage in Tokyo, which offers IBM Blockchain services, including blockchain application development using Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform, and will also include open blockchain technology proposed by the Linux Foundation.

[Image courtesy: Mizuho Financial Group]