Microsoft Adds JPMorgan’s 'Quorum' Blockchain to Azure Platform

Microsoft has added JPMorgan’s Quorum project to its blockchain tool box.

Speaking at the launch of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance in New York, Marley Gray, Microsoft’s principal architect in charge of blockchain services, revealed the news on stage to a group of about 500 people representing global banks, startups and competing blockchain consortia.

Gray said:

"We are proud to announce that Quorum is now available on Azure."

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, which hosts a range of blockchain-as-a-service tools and includes support for multiple implementations of the tech.

Quorum is an enterprise-focused blockchain service based on the ethereum codebase, designed to meet industry demands for faster speeds and high throughput processing.

Also speaking at the event today JPMorgan's blockchain program lead, Amber Baldet, explained that her company began developing Quorum in an attempt to solve issues it believed were present in the current ethereum implementation.

"That's what the initial release is," said Baldet. "But there’s still a long way to go."

JPMorgan and Microsoft are founding members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, formally revealed today, along with about 30 other enterprise and startup members.

The project is aimed at better capitalizing on the streamlined services and potentially faster clearing times of transactions resulting from a shared transaction ledger – and doing so in a collaborative manner.

Baldet concluded:

"We have to get over the hubris of thinking we need to build everything in-house."