BitPay joins Microsoft Azure blockchain project

Microsoft recently published a blog post announcing the update of its Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) project. Marley Gray, director of Microsoft's US Financial Services Technology Strategy Department, introduced four new partners of Microsoft's blockchain project in the article, namely: Bitcoin payment processor BitPay; blockchain rewards platform Manifold Technology; Bitcoin tax service LibraTax; and proof of ownership blockchain service Emercoin.

Since its inception, BitPay has received more than $32 million in investment, making it the strongest startup to join Azure’s blockchain product. In comparison, the other participating platforms are all early-stage blockchain startups or decentralized projects with smaller scale.

BitPay told CoinDesk that its open-source bitcoin full node and development service, Bitcore, will be added to the platform.

Microsoft's blockchain project was first made public in late October this year. So far, partners working with Microsoft services have included startups CoinPrism, ConsenSys, Eris Industries and Factom. In addition, Microsoft is also exploring how to add the Interledger protocol developed by Ripple to their blockchain project.

Gray further revealed that more blockchain-related companies or projects will be added to the Azure platform in the "coming weeks", and they will officially launch the Azure blockchain project soon.

Original: http://www.coindesk.com/bitpay-microsoft-blockchain-platform/
By Pete Rizzo
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/bitpay-microsoft)