Nivaura launches blockchain-based investment product, the world’s first, built on Azure

A new company, Nivaura, has created the world’s first blockchain-based investment product built using Azure, Microsoft’s cloud technology. As noted in a Microsoft News Center UK blog post, Nivaura is competing with IBM to deliver their product. In this 2016 video, Nivaura CEO and CPA (Chief Product Architect) Avtar Sehra, a quantum physicist, explains what Nivaura was able to do to build up their product using blockchain with Microsoft Azure in under a year.

More people are directing their focus on blockchain technology. In case you need a refresher, blockchain is a peer-to-peer distributed registry. Blockchain cannot be modified in any way, which makes it more secure, but you can add elements to it to suit your needs. Blockchain is the basis for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

In November 2017, Nivaura launched the world’s first automated bond issuance using their blockchain platform technology with help from Microsoft Azure. Nivaura’s blockchain technology automated all the necessary financial documentation needed for the transaction and everything was done using the Ethereum public blockchain network. At launch, Sehra reinterated what Nivaura can do for large investment companies like JPMorgan:

“What we’re showing is you can use open public infrastructure for regulated financial instruments, which is a very critical step, because from the earliest stages we’ve always believed public infrastructure is a viable way forward for particular instruments that don’t necessarily have high volume secondary markets.

As cryptocurrencies or tokenised fiat-currencies become a more accepted form of payment mechanism it will lead to an increasing uptake in using public blockchain infrastructure for registration, clearing and settlement of the securities.”

Only time will tell if more financial companies will make the jump towards using blockchain for automating financial transactions. Stay tuned.