Microsoft announces Asia’s first blockchain alliance in Taiwan

Baozou Comment : Looking at the development trend of global blockchain technology, Asia's status as a technology center has been recognized and paid attention to by many countries. Even the technology giant Microsoft has gradually increased its investment in blockchain research and development in Asia. This includes launching BaaS in India, and then cooperating with Taiwan Internet financial company AMIS and Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute to build a blockchain alliance. Using their respective technical advantages, combined with the Ethereum network and code to conduct blockchain research and development, they promote the integration of blockchain technology with Taiwan's local financial market.

Translation: Annie Xu

Tech giant Microsoft has announced the establishment of Asia’s “first and most advanced consortium blockchain network” in Taiwan, based on its Azure cloud platform.

Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the banking industry. It belongs to the field of Internet finance and is also the focus of Microsoft. For this purpose, Microsoft has established a new alliance with AMIS and Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). In addition, Microsoft has also promoted the development of blockchain technology in Taiwan's financial market with many regional banking institutions. Partners include Ubon Financial, Cathay Financial Holdings, MegaBank, KGT, CTBC Bank, and Taishin.

The alliance aims to promote the efficiency of Taiwan's financial institutions, reduce costs and increase settlement speed. Currently, new technologies that are popular in Taiwan's public sector include community payment applications, cross-sector integration, and installment payments.

Microsoft Taiwan Technology Officer Danny Ting said:

"Blockchain is a catalyst for promoting cross-field cooperation. Currently, cross-institutional transactions between companies incur high costs, and blockchain technology can solve this problem."

Leveraging Microsoft Azure platform and Ethereum

Internet finance company AMIS will develop and deploy blockchain solutions based on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, and can also integrate Internet of Things technology.

The AMIS decision is said to be based on ISO standards' recognition of the Azure platform, which is interoperable, scalable, and universal, with both private and hybrid cloud models.

The first project of the alliance is to use ITRI Taiwan's professional technology and Azure to develop and pilot blockchain. AMIS chose the Ethereum network and code for "permissioned blockchain" development because the technical architecture meets the needs of Taiwan's financial market. Azure will provide cloud computing to improve operational efficiency, and ITRI will assist in the development of APIs to achieve interoperability of ledgers.

The Azure platform has been tested in several blockchain pilot projects, especially R3's intercontinental banking test. The trial involved 11 banking institutions and lasted for 5 days, and was conducted on the virtual private network provided by Azure. In April, Microsoft joined the R3 alliance and provided a cloud service platform for alliance members.

As one of Microsoft's Internet finance activities in Asia, it launched blockchain and services (BaaS) on the Azure platform in India a few days ago.