Microsoft joins forces with Brooklyn start-up ConsensYs to launch cloud-based blockchain platform

Microsoft teams up with Brooklyn-based start-up ConsensYs and launched Tuesday a cloud-based blockchain platform that lets financial firms experiment on bitcoin in a cheap and easy manner.

Reuters reported that the blockchain is like a big, decentralized ledger that has every bitcoin transaction that is tamper-proof since a global computer network verifies and shares the platform. There are a lot of financial companies that are investing in the new technology since they expect it to increase efficiency and cut cost in learning how to deal through the Bitcoin industry.

According to the International Business Times, Ethereum's chief technology officer Gavin Wood recently said that some giant IT companies could use their product as an effective marketing tool. Now, Microsoft is launching the blockchain platform for Bitcoin transactions in the Azure cloud with ConsensYs, which also offers Ethereum applications. Microsoft seems to be undergoing a process of integration to keep up with the fast changing market and to make sure that their competition can work with the technologies they offer. Azure now works on Linux and Windows.

In a report by All Coins News, more financial firms are using the many various blockchains available to enhance their businesses. ConsenSys, meanwhile, specializes on developing decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. This new platform is available for banks and insurance companies that use the Azure platform by Microsoft.

This new platform was created after Microsoft got feedbacks on how difficult it is to use the blockchain technology. Microsoft financial services director of tech strategy, Markey Gray, during Ethereum's DevCon conference held in London, said, "Working with our customers that wanted to start playing around with blockchain technology, the major pain point that we kept hearing from them was that it was just too hard to get started, and too expensive."

Grey said the platform is a "fail fast, fail cheap" method for companies to experiment on Bitcoin without even having to create their own systems. Financial firms can easily create their own smart contracts in just a matter of 20 minutes.