Contrary to popular belief, banks and governments aren’t the only institutions interested in understanding more about blockchain technology, and potentially implementing it. In fact, Microsoft has recently unveiled the newest version of their consortium blockchain software product, at the Annual Ethereum Developer Conference over in Shanghai.
For those that do not know, back in June, Microsoft announced a project meant to allow businesses from all around the world to freely build consortiums and take better advantage of the currently available blockchain technology. Known by the name of Project Bletchley, it represents an open and modular blockchain fabric, which allows users to freely construct and scale member-only, permissioned blockchain consortiums. Microsoft believes that since the blockchain network is basically a distributed ledger technology, this allows its power to be directly proportional to the number of companies and individuals using it to build new networks.
According to recent reports, as a part of their first Quickstart Template update, Microsoft released a tool that allows users to quickly spin up a consortium by using a modified and private version of the Ethereum blockchain. According to Microsoft representatives, the template is likely one of the first of many which will help automate processes on different blockchain projects.
Upon getting access to the platform, users will be taken through a step-by-step guide, teaching them how to select the members which will join the consortium, determine the total number of nodes that each bank will have and then proceed to distribute these nodes geographically, using the Azure cloud for added resilience.
This particular project is one of the latest signs that Microsoft is still interested in using Ethereum to help develop and launch enterprise blockchain network services on the market. The idea behind them is to allow companies to more easily share data, money and contracts, by using what Ethereum is best known for- smart contracts. This will encourage companies to develop more of a collaborative environment, while also reducing costs and the time it usually took for contracts to be sent over.
During his Shanghai presentation, the leader of the project stated that project Bletchley can only be successful if the interest and participation of the Ethereum community is engaged. However, he also noted that access to developers is still an issue for enterprise industry, but by binding the efforts with the resources found in Ethereum’s developer pool, then progress could be made.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you think about Microsoft’s latest developments regarding their project and the Ethereum blockchain network which they wish to use? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.