Microsoft Azure Allows For Easy Deployment of Ethereum Blockchain Products

Microsoft’s popular cloud platform Azure has launched a new Proof-of-Authority (PoA) algorithm that allows for easy deployment of blockchain solutions with minimalistic technical knowledge requirements for either Azure or blockchain.

The Ethereum PoA algorithm will provide a more efficient way of building decentralized applications (DApps) wherein “all consensus participants are known and reputable.” With some handful of inputs, users will be able to deploy a fully configured network topology through Azure.

Unlike the existing Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol on Azure, the newly introduced Proof-Of-Authority (PoA) is based on the fundamentals of approved validators and identities on a blockchain and this doesn’t require competition among them for completing the transactions.

Additionally, the PoA product also comes with a built-in decentralized application (DApp) called “Governance DApp” wherein a group of members are given the authority to either govern the network or delegate their voting authority to others. In case the primary node goes offline, network participants can also delegates other nodes in the network to vote on their behalf. The ultimate aim of Governance DApp is to simplify voting and validator delegation while ensuring continual consensus participation.

Apart from this Governance DApp, the newly introduced Ethereal product hosts a number of solutions like Azure Monitor, identity leasing system, and Parity’s web-assembly support.

As explained in the official blog, the of Azure Monitor is to track nodes and network statistics. It further notes “For application developers, this provides visibility into the underlying blockchain to track block generation statistics. Network operators can use Azure Monitor to quickly detect and prevent network outages through infrastructure statistics and queryable logs.”

The identity leasing system ensures that as each member possesses  “redundant consensus nodes,” no two nodes shall carry the same identity. This system is used to provide identity protection in case of outage or virtual machine (VM) such that the new nodes “can quickly spin up and resume the previous nodes’ identities.”

The web-assembly process from Parity will help to simplify the process of developing smart contracts. Instead of the existing Solidity programming language on Ethereum network, the Parity support will let customers write smart contracts in their familiar languages. Developers will also be able to write DApps in other languages like Rust, C and C++.

The tech giant had first announced the Ethereum-based Azure cloud computing platform, three years back in 2015.