Microsoft to Integrate Blockchain Offering Into Nasdaq Services Following New Partnership

American software corporation Microsoft will integrate its Azure Blockchain technology into stock exchange Nasdaq Inc.’s Financial Framework (NFF), according to an Oct. 30 press release.

Per the recent announcement, Microsoft will integrate its Azure blockchain service with NFF, a technology which provides software for trading infrastructure and operations outsourcing, and fulfills Nasdaq’s risk and surveillance technology offering.

Within the collaboration, the parties will reportedly develop a “ledger agnostic blockchain capability” that will allow for operability across multiple ledgers. The new product will purportedly facilitate easier buyer and seller matching, management of delivery, and payment and settlement of transactions.

Integrating Azure Blockchain will reportedly allow NFF customers to deploy various blockchains through one common interface, in addition to promoting blockchain development.

Tom Fay, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Architecture at Nasdaq, said that the partnership with Microsoft removes some of the complexities of integrating blockchain technology into existing infrastructures. He added:

“Our NFF integration with their blockchain services provides a layer of abstraction, making our offering ledger-agnostic, secure, highly scalable, and ultimately helps us continue to explore a much broader range of customer use cases for blockchain.”

Recently, Nasdaq revealed a new blockchain patent, which makes reference to “an information computer system [...] provided for securely releasing time-sensitive information to recipients via a blockchain.” With the patent, the company is reportedly looking to ease releasing timely information to the media while keeping it secure and watertight from a legal standpoint.

Last month in an interview with Cointelegraph, Nasdaq’s Head of Alternative Data Bill Dague said that it is exploring adding crypto datasets to its market analytics tool. However, whether or not the exchange will launch a crypto-related product remains to be seen.

In August, Azure introduced a proof-of-authority (PoA) algorithm on its Ethereum blockchain product. A PoA algorithm is based on the principle of approved identities or validators on a blockchain, and does not require competition in completing the transactions.

The new Ethereum product on Azure is equipped with a number of features to ensure its correct functioning and security, such as an identity leasing system, Parity’s web-assembly support, Azure Monitor, and a Governance Decentralized Application (DApp).