When Microsoft announced its project to unleash its cloud-based blockchain platform back in November, it showed the world they are very positive about this technology. Director of Tech Strategy Marley Gray has stated since their offering the response has been “overwhelming and positive.” The team in association with ConsensYs was using initially just using Ethereum concepts to help with its launch. However, the project is now also now using a Ripple node to help with research as well.
The initial announcement at Ethereum’s DevCon event also included Gray informing the press about Microsoft’s initiative. The project partnered with the U.S. based ConsensYs would use Ethereum’s protocol implemented with its Azure platform experiments. After a month since its soft launch at DevCon Gray has informed the public of its current roadmap. The Azure blog states there are two platforms currently offered in their package to partners. One is Ethereum and the other Ripple in which the blog states:
“Azure BaaS is currently operating a Ripple validating node for the benefit of Ripple’s bank users, providing a valuable stakeholder to the consensus network.”— Marley Gray, Microsoft Director of Technology Strategy
The Microsoft director says they have various users testing out the application saying, “we have several customers taking advantage of the Blockchain as a Service platform and an active pipeline of partners getting on-boarded.” Gray believes the platform Azure is providing “tremendous value” to its customer base who are innovating with these new technologies. He says the value will “greatly appreciate a “fail fast and cheap” ecosystem to mix and match technologies in a Dev-Test sandbox.” The director says all of this makes it far easier to deploy hackathons and workshops focused on this architecture.
Ripple is the second biggest cryptocurrency market cap on coinmarketcap.com with a valuation of over 270 Million. The token is a what they call a real-time-gross-settlement system and was released in 2012 under the name XRP Ripple. The protocol was originally conceived by Ryan Fugger but rebranded with new concepts from Jed McCaleb of the eDonkey Network. There has been a lot of controversies associated with McCaleb and the centralization of Ripples servers. The implementation with Microsoft’s Azure shows signs they are confident in the XRP product. The director of tech strategy says:
“We’re exploring how the Interledger Protocol can be used by the Azure enterprise and developer community to enable new and novel use cases within Microsoft’s Blockchain as a Service offering.” — Marley Gray, Microsoft Director of Technology Strategy
Many in the crypto-community wonder if Microsoft will ever integrate the Bitcoin blockchain within their research. The use of Ethereum and Ripple is currently being used for sure by the cloud-based platform Azure, and Gray is pleased with the progress. Gray states, “Customers evaluate different implementations, performance test and build prototypes much faster with Azure’s one-click deployment of Blockchain technology approach.” Information on working with Microsoft’s Azure initiative can be found on their blog with access to these virtual machines. One thing is for certain the research concerning blockchains is alive and well in this tech giants laboratories.
Why do you think Microsoft chose Ripple and Ethereum for this testing? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Redmemes, Pixbay, and Microsoft’s Websites
