IT giant Microsoft, along with other major technology companies, is working to form an alliance aiming to foster the adoption of Ethereum blockchain, sources familiar with the effort told Bloomberg.

According to the report, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance has been in the works for months now. The companies intend to launch the initiative later this month, although no official announcement has been made yet. One of the sources, however, confirmed Microsoft’s involvement in the effort.

Microsoft partnered with R3 blockchain consortium in April 2016 to accelerate the use of blockchain by member banks and global financial markets. R3 also named Microsoft Azure the preferred cloud services provider for its R3 Lab and Research Center.

Later in November, Microsoft Azure released the templates of its Ethereum Consortium Network development, which enables users to deploy their Ethereum-based platform to create their own consortiums.

Ethereum, similar to bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology, allows for “smart contracts” functionality. Smart contract is nothing but a computer program code that facilitates, executes, and enforces the terms of an agreement (contract) using blockchain technology. This enables companies to automate certain jobs, thereby improving efficiency.

Ethereum network faced major problems last year – first with TheDAO hack and the subsequent hard fork; followed by the computational DoS attack.

According to Bloomberg, Ethereum still lacks many features needed for its widespread adoption and a consortium could expedite the development of these features.