How Microsoft Will Be Using Blockchain To Build Their New Digital Identity?

The Context of Microsoft Corp. 

Currently Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has unveiled the plans to craft a new form of digital identity on the blockchain Internet. It is therefore observed that in the current Internet ecosystem, services such as social media and search engines provide a free accessing exchange for user data which is thereby sold to advertisers. Here the users of these services are limited control over how the data is used. Thereby in a February 12 blog post, Ankur Patel, the Principal Program Manager at Microsoft’s Identity division has revealed details related to the company’s efforts to establish a new paradigm for such transactions.

The observation is that according to him, it was rather more than grant broad consent to the countless apps and services and have their identity spread across numerous providers, individuals’ needs a secure encrypted digital hub whereby they can store their identity data and also easily control the access to it. He adds that the self-owned identity would be easy to use and provide users with complete control over how and when it is used. 

How Is The Microsoft Putting Blockchain Technology To Practice?

Thereby Microsoft plans to use blockchain technology and the principles of decentralization to fashion a new digital identity for users where for example, the company’s proposed that the self-owned identity system will use those of the community attestations to establish the trust in identity. Steven Johnson who writes in the New York Times provided a picture perspective of a similar concept in the future and as he explained it, the closed systems such as Facebook and Google have siloed identities in corporate databases with corporate company's own user identities in this case. 

Thereafter when users own their identities, they can selectively share it with the service that they plan to use for example, within a ride-sharing context as users can choose to share their contact and payment details only for the duration of an Uber or Lyft ride as similarly, users could create a circle of trust using multiple addresses.

Hereby Microsoft already has an app called Microsoft Authenticator that can serve as a cryptographic backend for such operations. Here the authenticator generates six-letter tokens for temporary access to websites and other services. Later on in his post, Patel stated that the company’s next step will be to enable decentralized identities using Microsoft Authenticator as with consent, Microsoft Authenticator will be able thereby to act as the User-Agent to manage the identity data and those cryptographic keys he wrote. 

It was later that the Redmond, Washington company is already part of the decentralized ID Foundation which is an open-source group constructing a new digital identity as it had earlier become a founding member of the ID2020 project at the United Nations and donated $ 1million to it. 

Microsoft Unveils Azure Blockchain Workbench Tools

Currently there are a growing number of these businesses and developers who are embracing blockchain technology where the technology leaders are offering new tools allowing the blockchain technology to be used simply and efficiently. 

The Azure Blockchain Workbench 

Thereby the industry leader, Microsoft Corp had announced the Azure Blockchain Workbench that was made during the 3 days annual Microsoft Build Conference which is taking place from May 7 to May 9 2018 in Seattle. The Azure Marketplace as of now is a one-stop-shop for all software requirements that are certified and optimized to run on Azure allowing a user to search and thereafter procure a variety of the software solutions thereby ranging from open-source container platforms to the threat detection to blockchain-based apps and services as developers and businesses are also allowed to sell those developed apps and the software products right now on the marketplace. It is here that the platform also supports consulting services like the implementation of database services or proof of concepts.

It is observed than at Microsoft said Workbench is the scaffolding for an end-to-end blockchain application that can be easily built with just a few simple clicks a new platform that will surely allow the development of those blockchain applications within days when compared to months.

What Is The Million-Dollar Blockchain Implementation Opportunity?

It is thereby consequently that as businesses witness there is increased use of blockchain-based solutions as when Microsoft attempt to capitalize on that opportunity by offering a similar ready to use infrastructure thereby to be instantly available to those customers looking for the quick implementation of all blockchain solutions.

According to Matthew Kerner, general manager, Microsoft Azure workbench gets customers started quickly by automating infrastructure set up so that developers can focus on application logic and business owners can focus on defining and validating their use cases.

Hereafter it is noted that the workbench while it automates all the necessary deployment of the distributed ledgers and also the network construction thereby saving developers from infrastructure and maintenance related overhead. Thereafter the integration between the blockchain and the Azure services is also taken care of by the Workbench.

The Conclusion 

The finding is that even though the Workbench was announced later, it was already made available to some select parties earlier and Azure has offered the Workbench for a few early adopters, for instance, the Israeli Bank Hapoalim is used it to configure a solution which allowed it to process bank guarantees for large purchases more quickly and easily. The global food giant Nestle thereby tested it to track the supply chain of its BacioPerugina chocolate in Italy. Whereas in the US, Apttus is using the platform to build and deploy smart contracts to secure, track, and adjust to changes in loans that are securitized and pooled for collateralized debt instruments.

Thereafter their offering is similar to Hyperledger Cello operating as blockchain as a service which is a service-based blockchain implementation that allows users to forget about maintaining blockchain network and infrastructure.