R3's Corda blockchain platform now available on Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers. The platform offers a growing collection of integrated cloud services, including analytics, computing, database, mobile, networking, and storage.

Microsoft recently announced the availability of R3’s Corda on Microsoft Azure. The platform offers a variety of consensus algorithms for the management and recording of financial transaction on R3 blockchains, to keep financial business immutable while staying within existing legal and regulatory frameworks.

Corda was built in collaboration with over 70 R3 members, and introduced in April. The platform was “designed from the ground up to record, manage and synchronise financial agreements between regulated financial institutions,” according to the company.

“By making simple Corda demos available on the Azure Marketplace, R3 and Microsoft are making it easy for newcomers to experience Corda for themselves before joining the community.” - Christine Avanessians, Microsoft Azure Senior Program Manager

The packaged installation files for Corda are the latest offering from Microsoft in a series of blockchain services called Project Bletchley, which outlines Microsoft’s vision for an open, modular blockchain fabric powered by Azure. The project stems from Microsoft's vision “to deliver Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) that is open and flexible for all platforms, partners and customers” according to Marley Gray, Azure’s Blockchain Engineering Principal Program Manager.

Bletchley will introduces a modular framework allowing users to choose what combination of technologies best fits the business model they are trying to address, while Azure will remain open to all protocols, consensus algorithms, databases and virtual machines. The project also introduces two new concepts, which Microsoft believes are key in enterprise blockchain architecture, blockchain middleware and cryptlets.

Blockchain middleware provides core services in the cloud, such as data and intelligence services incuding analytics and machine learning, as well as identity and operations management. “These technologies will ensure the secure, immutable operation that blockchain provides,” Gray explained, “At the same time, deliver the business intelligence and reporting capabilities business leaders and regulators demand.”

Cryptlets enable secure interoperation and communication between Microsoft Azure, ecosystem middleware, and customer technologies. “They will become a critical component of sophisticated blockchain systems, enabling all technology to work together in a secure, scalable way,” Gray described.

"Bletchley is Microsoft’s architectural approach to building an Enterprise Consortium Blockchain Ecosystem. To be clear, this is not a new blockchain stack. It is Microsoft’s approach to bring distributed ledger (blockchain) platforms into the enterprise to build real solutions addressing real business problems while keeping the platform open.” - Marley Gray, Microsoft Azure Blockchain Engineering Principle Architect

Consortium blockchains, which refers to private, permissioned blockchains shared between several different member organizations, define their networks based on the business they are addressing. In contrast, public blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and hyperledger come with their own set of rules and environment data. Since each consortium blockchain will have multiple participants, or nodes, there will by default be many ledgers, according to the Project Bletchley whitepaper.

The release demonstrates how Corda can be used in real-world scenarios, including an interest rate swap deal and Standard Initial Margin Model valuation. “By making simple Corda demos available on the Azure Marketplace, R3 and Microsoft are making it easy for newcomers to experience Corda for themselves before joining the community,” said Richard G Brown, R3 Chief Technology Officer.

R3 says that it has an advantage over other distributed ledger projects such as Ethereum and Hyperledger because the consortium maintains a “tight focus on financial services,” specifically focusing on privacy, confidentiality, and other finance-specific requirements.

“Corda is a distributed ledger platform designed from the ground up to record, manage and synchronize financial agreements between regulated financial institutions. It is heavily inspired by and captures the benefits of blockchain systems, without the design choices that make blockchains inappropriate for many banking scenarios.” - Richard G Brown, R3 Chief Technology Officer

R3 CEV began with only nine investment banks and a vision to bring distributed ledgers to the greater banking world. Starting out in the summer of 2015, during the initial rush of banks starting to embrace blockchain technology, the consortium has grown to over 70 member institutions.

The company appeared to stumble last month as a hand full of members left. 42 founding financial institutions were all offered a new round of equity funding. While R3 expects to raise $150 million in the next nine months from the round, Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, and Morgan Stanley all declined to renew their membership after the announcement.

While most members have stayed with R3, the organization has been going through some structural changes and Corda soon became the focus of their offering. The Azure news comes just weeks after R3 CEV made Corda open source project, submitting it to the Hyperledger Project. According to James Carlyle, chief engineer at R3, the plan is to persuade other developers outside of the R3 membership to create additional applications for it.

“As with any project of this scale and scope, we always expected the make-up of the consortium to change over time. Developing technology like this requires dedication and significant resources, and our diverse pool of members all have different capacities and capabilities which naturally change over time.” - R3 CEV