For those keeping track, here’s yet another milestone for how the pace of digital currency innovation is accelerating:
Microsoft announced its intention to start accepting Bitcoin in December 2014. Less than a year later, in October 2015, they have released the news that they have struck a deal to work with Ethereum through a partnership with ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based startup specialized in building software for this platform.
The Bitcoin network was operational for nearly five years before Microsoft began participating in it, indirectly, through an arrangement with Bitpay. At the time of the ConsenSys announcement, Ethereum was only running for three months. The deal with Microsoft will allow customers of their cloud-computing platform, Azure, to easily develop and execute decentralized Ethereum applications and Ethereum-based smart contracts. It’s now just a matter of time before you can pay Microsoft for Ethereum services with bitcoin.
Microsoft joins the Ethereum party early, but isn’t the first multinational to do so. For example, IBM, Samsung and various financial institutions have already announced projects that work with this technology.
During the Bitcoin Wednesday conference in Amsterdam on 4 November 2015, Ashley Taylor of ConsenSys, will give a presentation on decentralized applications for communities.