It is widely known that Microsoft are exploring and building upon blockchain technology. As one of the biggest tech and computing brands in the world, they don’t really have a choice in the matter. Microsoft could indeed one day become the masters of their own, game changing blockchain but for now, they are using readily existing projects to integrate their own technologies. Most recently, the Ethereum blockchain has been pulled into the Microsoft portfolio.

 

The project, is known as Ethereum on Azure

Alongside Microsoft Azure, Microsoft have announced the support of the Ethereum blockchain, in a move that aims to make the Ethereum blockchain more accessible to enterprises and businesses, by reducing the amount of interaction needed by the user on the blockchain. As a part of this, they have focused on a proof-of-work and a proof-of-authority model that abolishes the need for mining to access Ethereum tokens. According to the plans, within the Microsoft Azure marketplace:

 

Proof-of-Authority
“This solution deploys a flexible Ethereum Proof-of-Authority (PoA) network, consisting of a set of highly-available Parity nodes with which an application or user can interact to submit transactions. It can take between 5-45 minutes to provision, depending on the size and complexity of the network. Once complete, through the Governance DApp, you can vote to add additional authorities on the network. This deployment can be configured to connect to an existing network.”

Proof-of-Work
“This solution deploys a flexible Ethereum network, consisting of a set of load-balanced transaction nodes with which an application or user can interact to submit transactions and a set of mining nodes to record transactions. It can take between 5-45 minutes to provision, depending on the size and complexity of the network. Once complete, through the administrator web page, you can configure additional Ethereum accounts to get started with smart contract, and eventually application, development. The URL for the administrator web page is the first output of the deployment. This deployment can be configured to connect to an existing network.”

 

See the full details, here.

This is a part of the bigger Azure Blockchain, a project developed to simplify the development of blockchain products and services, to allow projects to birth and make connections almost instantly. Moreover, the Azure Blockchain uses enhanced cryptographic security all within the Microsoft Cloud platform.

Some current applications of the Azure Blockchain include;

 

• Insurance services
• Online travel market payments
• Delivery of royalty statements to Xbox game publishers
• Supply chain monitoring to protect products from counterfeiting

Find out more about Microsoft Azure and the Azure Blockchain for yourself, here.