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Microsoft, USAA Join DC Blockchain Policy Group

May 2, 2016By rightstech

Tech giant Microsoft and military-focused banking and insurance firm USAA are among the newest members of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a policy advocacy group focused on blockchain technology.

Founded in mid-2014, the non-profit lobbying group has spent the time since pushing for fair regulation and oversight in Washington, DC for companies working on bitcoin or blockchain applications. The group is led by Perianne Boring, a former Forbes columnist and Capitol Hill staffer. More recently, the Chamber was one of the founding organizations behind the Blockchain Alliance, a public-private forum aimed at promoting cooperation between industry stakeholders and government agencies.

Source: Microsoft, USAA Join DC Blockchain Policy Group – CoinDesk

Microsoft Adds Ethereum to Windows Platform For Over 3 Million Developers

March 31, 2016By admin

Millions of Microsoft developers are now able to build decentralized applications using the Ethereum blockchain thanks to a collaboration between the software giant and ConsenSys, announced today.

By building Ethereum’s Solidity programming language for writing smart contracts directly into Mircosoft’s Visual Studio platform, developers will be able to build, test and deploy decentralized applications, or dapps, within an integrated environment they already know how to use.But don’t think this is a money play for either ConsenSys, or Microsoft, at least not yet.

Source: CoinDesk

Microsoft Certifies Ethereum Offering in Blockchain Service First

March 1, 2016By admin

BlockApps, a startup providing Ethereum blockchain software for enterprises, has become the first certified offering on Microsoft Azure’s Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) marketplace. With its latest post, Microsoft also announced that asset exchange provider AlphaPoint and Internet-of-Things micropayments startup IOTA have joined its Azure BaaS platform.

Source: CoinDesk

IBM and Microsoft Will Let You Roll Your Own Blockchain

February 17, 2016By admin

They call it the Hyperledger. And it can be yours.

In late December, several big-name companies from across both the tech and financial industries—including IBM, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and the London Stock Exchange—unveiled a new open source software project based on the blockchain, the global online ledger that underpins the bitcoin digital currency.

Source: WIRED

Microsoft Moving Beyond Bitcoin To Create Blockchain Marketplace On Azure Cloud

February 17, 2016By admin

At the end of 2014, Microsoft announced plans to integrate the cryptocurrency bitcoin — at the time experiencing an unprecedented surge in value — into its Windows and Xbox payments system. The news caused the price of bitcoin to surge, but the initiative never really gained widespread support. Microsoft is now looking beyond bitcoin, however, and trying to create a marketplace for the blockchain, the distributed ledger technology on which bitcoin is built.

While bitcoin may have grabbed the headlines with its wildly fluctuating value and its mysterious creator, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, it is blockchain that is seen as the real innovation. On Monday, IBM announced it would put major resources into helping its customers to develop apps built on the blockchain, and Microsoft is also eager to gain an advantage over competitors by building what it calls a “certified blockchain marketplace” on its Azure cloud platform.

Source: IBT