Blockchain banking gets a boost from Azure

British payments services firm Caxton will use Microsoft’s cloud platform to offer faster, cheaper and more secure banking via blockchain technology.

Thursday, 2nd March 2017 Posted 7 years ago in by Phil Alsop

The private blockchain system will run on Azure and give users direct access to preferential banking rates, while cutting their service costs.

The move will be particularly beneficial for e-commerce businesses looking to make payments in multiple currencies, app developers who need a regulated partner to handle transactions or banks that needs a simple, multicurrency platform.

Russell Stather, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Caxton, said: “This offer will be particularly exciting for our client’s CTOs. This technology strips out the need for an API [application-programming interface], meaning everything is under their control. There’s no need for them to waste time and money, installing and maintaining an API.”

Blockchain is a database that can be added to but not modified, making it very secure; while each entry, or block, is linked to the previous one, so they are also quick and easy to use. It is historically known as a core part of the digital currency bitcoin but can be used for any transaction, so has the potential to revolutionise e-commerce.

Caxton’s solution comes just weeks after Microsoft spelled out its vision for the future of blockchain at an event in London. The company told the Blockchain Expo that the cloud is the best way to use the technology and it is working on an ecosystem to support it, codenamed Project Bletchley. The platform aims to provide openness, privacy, security, scale, flexibility and members-only blockchains.