Microsoft Azure has announced the launch of Project Bletchley that will make it possible for anyone to use its cloud-based platform in order to create their own customised blockchain systems.

The project was developed in view of some issues raised by early adopters of the blockchain, claims Marley Gray, Director of BizDev & Strategy, Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft.

The new platform is open for all contributors. It makes it possible to set up such core parameters of blockchain systems as anonymity (or, on the contrary, account identification), key management, security, privacy, operation management.

Besides, the platform provides stability, efficient performance and scalability. The main goal of the project is to create a basis on which various permissioned blockchain consortiums will be built, from the simplest to the most complicated. For example, the platform will allow constructing Ethereum-like systems working on smart contracts.

The white paper of the project introduces two concepts it claims to be new to blockchain ecosystems. The first is middleware, which will constitute the cloud-based blockchain fabric, providing core services such as identity and operations management and making possible the interoperability of all Bletchley-based systems. In addition, middleware will deliver business intelligence, much required by regulators and industry leaders.

Another new notion is the cryptlets. Being a new building block of the blockchain, the cryptlets will allow “secure interoperation and communication between Microsoft Azure, ecosystem middleware and customer technologies” and provide additional information for transactions, such as date and time, when necessary.

In the future, blockchain consortiums will be able to interact with each other following the path once paved by personal computers:

“Eventually, Consortiums will form and settle into their networks. These consortium networks will begin interoperating with each other with transactions, value and ownership transfers as well as provenance and lineage tracking across ecosystems. With the inclusion of Machine Learning watching these distributed ledgers, who knows what we will discover,” reads the document.

Project Bletchley differs from other blockchain platforms in that its services will be available in 24 regions across the globe. The system will be especially demanded in areas where a higher level of regulation is needed, such as healthcare, financial services and government.

Microsoft actively participates in blockchain-related research and development. As CoinFox has reported earlier, the company will be the premiere sponsor of the Devcon2 conference devoted to the development of Ethereum-based blockchain applications.

Andrew Levich