Mitsubishi UFJ has pulled the plug on its blockchain-based online payment network, Global Open Network Japan (GO-NET Japan), citing the "recent hard business environment" for payments.
Developed as a joint venture with vendor Akamai, GO-NET Japan was designed in response to the rise of the Internet of Things, enabling pay-per-use, micropayments and other developing IoT-enabled payment transactions.
After several delays, it was launched last April but MUFG now says that it will suspend operations and begin liquidation procedures.
The Japanese giant says that Covid-19, along with other factors, "made it difficult to develop its business on the scale originally anticipated" and that profitability was unlikely to be reached in a "reasonable timeframe".