REDMOND, Wash., Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft
Corp. on Thursday announced the Coco Framework, a first-of-its-kind
innovation that will advance enterprise adoption of blockchain
technology. Current blockchain protocol technology requires
complicated development techniques to meet the operational and
security needs of enterprises. The Coco Framework reduces this
complexity, and when integrated with blockchain networks addresses
critical needs for commercial adoption like high-transaction speed,
distributed governance and confidentiality. Providing these
foundational capabilities opens up more complex, real-world
blockchain scenarios across industries — like financial services,
supply chain and logistics, healthcare and retail — further proving
blockchain's potential to digitally transform business.
"Blockchain is a transformational technology with the ability to
significantly reduce the friction of doing business," said
Mark Russinovich, chief technology
officer of Azure at Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to bringing
blockchain to the enterprise. We have listened to the needs of our
customers and the blockchain community and are bringing
foundational functionality with the Coco Framework. Through an
innovative combination of advanced algorithms and trusted execution
environments (TEEs), like Intel's Software Guard Extensions (SGX)
or Windows Virtual Secure Mode (VSM), we believe this takes the
next step toward making blockchain ready for business."
When integrated with a blockchain network, key benefits of the
Coco Framework include these:
- Transaction speeds of more than 1,600 transactions per
second
- Easily managed data confidentiality without sacrificing
performance
- A comprehensive, industry-first distributed governance model
for blockchain networks that establishes a network constitution and
allows members to vote on all terms and conditions governing the
consortium and the blockchain software system
"We are thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring blockchain to
the enterprise," said Rick
Echevarria, vice president, Software and Services Group and
General Manager, Platforms Security Division at Intel. "Our mutual
customers are excited by the potential of blockchain. Intel is
committed to accelerating the value of blockchains powered by Azure
on Intel hardware, by improving the scalability, privacy and
security of the solutions based on our technologies."
The Coco Framework by design will be compatible with any ledger
protocol and can operate in the cloud and on premises, on any
operating system and hypervisor that supports a compatible TEE.
Initial Coco Framework implementations will include R3 Corda, Intel
Hyperledger Sawtooth, J.P. Morgan Quorum, and Ethereum.
"The R3 Corda platform was built for enterprises. We designed it
with the financial industry from the ground up to solve real
business problems, but we also knew it had to be deployable and
manageable in today's complex IT landscape," said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3. "No other
distributed ledger technology platform is as interoperable or
easily integrated, and partnering with Microsoft is another
milestone in our mission to facilitate a world of frictionless
commerce."
A technical white paper and demonstration are available today
for business leaders and developers looking to learn more about the
Coco Framework. Microsoft will launch the framework on GitHub in
2018 as an open source project and will work with customers and
partners, as well as the blockchain technical and business
communities, to continue advancing foundational blockchain
technology.
More information on the Coco Framework, including links to our
technical white paper and technical demo, can be found at
http://www.aka.ms/cocoframework.
Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT) (@microsoft) is the leading platform and
productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and
its mission is to empower every person and every organization on
the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.