Microsoft unveiled enterprise smart contracts as its next step to offer blockchain services, Azure Blockchain Engineering Principal Program Manager Marley Gray wrote in a company blog post July 20.
"Our initial goal for 'Blockchain as a Service' was to make it easier for developers to set up a lab environment, get their hands dirty and build something useful for the enterprise using a blockchain," Mr. Gray wrote. "Our customers and partners often say to us, 'Ok, you've made it easy for me to stand up these blockchain networks, but what do I do now?'"
Enterprise smart contracts — which Microsoft plans to offer on Azure, its cloud computing platform — will provide customers with a secure, multiparty application platform to run shared data elements, business rules, distributed ledgers and contract binding. The framework uses infrastructure and tools to build applications for a range of functions, such as distributed transaction support between blockchains.
"These capabilities help unlock the power of blockchain based applications, while taking advantage of the flexibility and power of the cloud," Mr. Gray wrote.
Click here to view the blog post.