Amazon Web Services In Partnership With Blockchain Startup Consensys
The cloud computing arm of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, has formed a partnership with Consensys, an Ethereum (ETH) design studio with the aim of making enterprise blockchains faster and easier to deploy. Currently the percentage of businesses which are estimated to have implemented or integrated blockchain technology systems in their operations is around 1%. And while around 10% of businesses are currently considering or implementing the technology, 77% of them have no interest at all in blockchain.
The partnership was announced earlier this week during Consensus 2018 where a blockchain cloud service known as Kaleido will be used to smoothen the onboarding process of enterprise consortium members while also making private blockchain networks easy to operate.
According to Amazon Web Services’ global technical lead for the partner program, Matt Yanchyshyn, the firm has been following the blockchain platform of Ethereum closely since it is what majority of customers are interested in. However Yanchyshyn pointed out that Amazon Web Services is protocol-agnostic and was also supporting other platforms such as Corda from R3 and Sawtooth from Hyperledger.
The interest of Amazon Web Services in blockchain technology was first made public in 2016 when the cloud computing giant announced that it would begin partnering with startups in the space by providing infrastructure and technical support. Last month Amazon Web Services launched a service that made it possible to unveil out-of-the-box blockchain networks with regards to the protocols of Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum.
But while Amazon has embraced blockchain technology the same cannot be said of cryptocurrencies. In 2017 the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, received a petition which demanded that the online retail giant begin accepting virtual currencies as a means of payment. This is however yet to be implemented.
With Kaleido users will also be able to choose between various consensus algorithms as they can either go with Geth or Quorum. Currently Geth has the highest levels of popularity with regards to the blockchain platform of Ethereum. Quorum is ethereum’s enterprise version and was developed by the biggest bank in the United States in terms of assets, JPMorgan Chase.
Besides online retail giant Amazon other tech firms which are involved in blockchain initiatives include Microsoft, Facebook and IBM. However the initiatives have not been restricted to tech firms and companies such as HSBC, Deloitte and Accenture are also active in the space.