Microsoft adds Ethereum to Windows platform

Thousands of Microsoft developers can now build decentralized applications using the Ethereum blockchain, thanks to a collaboration between the Microsoft giant and ConsenSys. By building on the Ethereum Solidity programming language and writing smart contracts directly into the Microsoft Visual Studio platform, developers can build, test, and deploy decentralized applications within a known integrated environment.

But don’t think this is a money play for Consensys or Microsoft, at least not yet.

In a conversation with CoinDesk, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin said increasing the number of developers using distributed ledger technology is the most important thing currently being done to reshape social, economic and political systems.

Ethereum co-founder: Lubin

Ethereum co-founder Lubin told CoinDesk:

“Our mission is to use Ethereum in all its forms — public and private consortiums — to make things easier.”

ConsenSys has merged with Microsoft to use the smart contract programming language Solidity to allow developers to run programs on the Ethereum network, also known as the Ethereum Virtual Computer (EVM). The new feature will be available at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) this morning, the company announced at Microsoft’s developer conference in San Francisco.

With Ethereum's Solidity language, developers can write applications using automated smart contracts, which can theoretically enable a wide range of commercial transactions.

Ethereum’s cryptocurrency, which powers the app, is currently valued at around $11.6, with a market value of more than $90 million.

EVM transactions, or smart contracts as they are more accurately called, can be recorded in what Consensys described in a statement as an “immutable and permissionless” record using either a public or private version of the ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum’s room for growth

Even though Ethereum has been accelerating, its adoption has slowed recently.

Analysis by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers shows that Ethereum’s codebase on GitHub, which reflects how developers are using the distributed ledger in their projects, has grown at an exponential rate since January 2014, from fewer than 10 to 460 by the end of 2015.

Using the same methodology, we calculated that the number has doubled to 997 repositories in the last three months alone.

But compared to Bitcoin, which currently has 7,647 Bitcoin repositories on GitHub, there is still a lot of room for growth before Ethereum can become a real competitor.

Marley Gray, director of bitcoin business development and strategy at Microsoft, thinks his company’s developers can change that. Since June 2015, when Microsoft released the latest version of Visual Studio, more than 3.2 million developers have registered with the platform, which has been downloaded more than 13 million times in the past few years.

Gray said in a statement:

“Integration with Visual Studio gives developers an enterprise-grade solution for working on blockchain smart contracts of any size through advanced teams.”

The ConsenSys CEO said he has no plans to make money directly from the collaboration, and he was clear in a conversation with CoinDesk that the effort to get developers to build apps is not charity.

Lubin said:

“Consensys is a for-profit company that designs products on the Ethereum platform. We build professional services and consulting on the platform, which makes it easier to provide consumers with that environment, and through that environment, we can provide more services.”

Based in Brooklyn, New York, ConsenSys currently generates revenue from taking orders from institutional clients, which it declined to name.

ConsenSys currently employs about 70 people worldwide, 30 of whom are based in New York. He estimates that 80% of employees work full-time and are compensated through pooled benefits and payouts.

He told CoinDesk:

"Everyone is a shareholder, it just depends on when they started. Other factors that play into compensation are experience, projects and increased revenue."

ConsenSys will not disclose specific revenue figures, and Keys said it has no plans to turn a profit in the near future.

He said:

"We just want to keep hiring people. We're up to 70 now, and if we find the right person we'll hire him right away."

Keys said the company expects to double its workforce to 150 full-time employees by the end of 2016.

Symbiotic relationship

Lubin said ConsenSys and Microsoft have a true partnership in which neither party has to pay the other.

Both companies have benefited from the collaboration in other ways. In November 2015, Consensys was the first company to join Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, which lets other companies work with distributed ledger technology in a sandbox environment.

As a result, Microsoft was able to maintain its position in the blockchain industry as one of the largest early movers, with Consensys receiving $427 billion for its work with public companies.

Lubin believes that relationship will continue, thanks in large part to today's news.

Lubin described Visual Studio to CoinDesk:

"It's the best software developer tool in the world, and this collaboration adds vocabulary to the codebase to create different programs."