Microsoft joins R3 consortium to help developing the blockchain technology for the financial services industry.
Microsoft has burst into action recently. It has just recently added programming language, Solidity, into Visual Studio, thus adding the power of decentralised applications to the most powerful development platform so far, and added native support for bitcoin for the most popular spreadsheet program used by millions of people, Microsoft Excel. The support for the Bitcoin currency format is currently at the developmental stage.
Today Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President, Business Development, announced the partnership of Microsoft with R3 consortium, consisting of leading banking institutions. Microsoft follows SBI Holdings, the Tokyo-based financial conglomerate that signed up for the R3 blockchain project just a couple of weeks ago.
The partnership between Microsoft and R3 is expected to help move blockchain technology from hype to reality for the financial services industry. “Together, we will help R3’s over 40 member banks develop, test and deploy blockchain technologies to modernize decades-old processes and streamline operations, potentially saving billions of dollars from back-office operations.”
Microsoft offered R3 consortium its cloud platform, Microsoft Azure, and access to its expanding network of Blockchain-as-a-Service solution providers currently numbering in more than 45 partners. The cooperation with Microsoft provides R3’s members with intelligent technology for faster experimentation, technical agility and accelerated learning.
“This partnership creates a powerful, flexible ecosystem for member banks to develop and ultimately deploy real-world blockchain solutions. R3’s members will also benefit from Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud security and privacy protections, in addition to the largest cloud compliance and certification portfolio in the industry, an absolute necessity for the financial services industry”, says Peggy Johnson.
This is far from being the only today’s news from Microsoft. The software giant has announced a new event, Microsoft Envision, for thousands of business leaders from nearly every industry to share insights and uncover solutions for success in the digital age. Microsoft Envision is taking place in New Orleans.
Peggy Johnson talks about digital transformation that is lighting up across industries in every region of the world. It brings new opportunities, markets and customers as well as new challenges. And every day it is getting harder to deny the role of the blockchain technology in this transformation.
Blockchain is studied and employed by financial institutions all over the world as a secure and transparent way to digitally track the ownership of assets. Multiple experts repeat that blockchain has a potential to modernize legacy financial processes and revolutionize the whole way financial institutions conduct transactions. The most attractive benefit for customers is that the technology can create a financial system without middlemen like clearing houses. Thus a more direct transfer of ownership will be enabled, which, in its turn, cuts costs and greatly reduces the risk of fraud.
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