Microsoft continues blockchain push with AMIS partnership in Taiwan

Microsoft’s announcement of Asia’s first blockchain consortium may seem like gibberish to some, but to others, particularly in the banking sector, this news may be very intriguing.

Today, Microsoft made news in Asia by announcing the company has recently entered into a partnership with AMIS and the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) to establish the region’s first blockchain network via a new consortium.

The consortium thus far is made up of the following financial institutions:

• Ubon Financial
• Cathy Financial Holdings
• MegaBank
• KGI
• Taishin
• CTBC Bank

Following today’s announcement, Microsoft highlighted what it believes to be Four unique advantages to why AMIS chose the Microsoft Azure platform to utilize its Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS).

AMIS’s blockchain solutions utilize distributed ledger technology and cryptographic authentication, which aims to streamline financial business operations and reduce money laundering risks and other cyber-attacks. This solution can also be extended to other implementations such as Internet of Things (IoT) to further expand business opportunities.

Azure is the cloud platform of choice for enterprises. Not only is it compliant with various international standards and certifications, but it also has security and privacy features built-in, and is the only platform with BaaS.

Azure is therefore AMIS’s preferred platform for its blockchain offering, with the following unique features:

1.  Highly secure and controllable platform that complies with international and industry regulations and standards
2. Open, interoperable, flexible and scalable platform
3. Availability of public, private and hybrid cloud models
4. Business and technical support from local team based in Taiwan

Today’s new comes on the heels of a growing adoption of blockchain technology. Shortly before becoming embroiled with AIMS Microsoft also became the strategic partner of the R3 Consortium and servicing member to 40 different banks.

It seems the overall goal of establishing these blockchain investments are to bring more efficiency and cost-savings for companies while also providing two-way payment, cross-field integration and speed up cash flow. The other benefit of blockchain technology includes the support of a burgeoning bank app and payment ecosystem.

It’ll be interesting to see Microsoft continue developing its blockchain technologies and what, if anything comes of this effort to the broader Windows 10 ecosystem of devices and software.