Microsoft & Blockchain: Decentralized Identity

The eye of the Redmont giant has turned upon blockchain. The company shows increasing interest in the new technology, looking for an effective way to leverage it in the flagship solutions to improve the data analytics and safety. What does it mean to the technology itself?

Blockchain Solutions

Surprisingly, after 10 years, blockchain technology is still in its early stage, where a number of startups and grown up companies are trying to find the useful applications for it. They are often struggling and try to use it against the hair, stripping it off the benefits while embracing all the issues. They use it as a really slow database, with the right to use the blockchain buzzword in the marketing.

Microsoft and Decentralized Identity

In the project that Microsoft’s Identity Division has been working on the last 18 months, the Redmont giant embraces the technology to create a decentralized identity system. In their recently release, white paper claims to help to build an open, trustworthy, interoperable, and standards-based Decentralized Identity (DID) solution for individuals and organizations.

At the moment, our identity data is scattered among a number of companies, often being shared further on, and it’s getting harder and harder to control. The Microsoft solution intends to combine blockchain and off-components to create a system, where you have full control over your ID – and you simply grant access to them to the third parties. The system will be complemented with a wallet-like app for managing DIDs and associated data.

Commercial applications of blockchain technology

With the interests of the big companies, supported by large budgets, the blockchain is going to develop in an interesting, business ready directions. We have already witness the trend of commercializing the blockchain technology, and in the next months this market will be really interesting to watch.