Microsoft Developing Blockchain Enterprise Framework
Microsoft is developing a new blockchain framework that it claims will speed-up adaptation of the technology by large enterprises, directly challenging IBM and other blockchain solutions purveyors.
The system, called Coco Framework, will be open source and free upon its final release. Coco stands for Confidential Consortium, a name that emphasizes Coco’s alleged privacy protections and greater speed advantages. The software offer object segmentation, recognition in context, multiple objects per images, and other enhanced features.
Coco will be available early in 2018, Microsoft said. It is currently compatible with ethereum and offers speeds 100 times faster than current frameworks, the company claims.
“We expect this to be the foundation for blockchain for enterprise,” said Mark Russinovich, chief technology officer of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing division. “We think blockchain is going to potentially transform every industry.”
Microsoft’s Coco will make it easier for large firms to control access to sensitive data, Russinovich said, without significantly slowing the system. Coco is being built with Intel hardware, he added.
The new Coco platform will be integrated with a number of open-source blockchains and distributed ledgers, including ethereum, R3’s Corda, JP Morgan’s Quorum, and Hyperledger Sawtooth.
