Microsoft Announces Blockchain-based Partnership in Taiwan
A strategic partnership between Taiwan’s Microsoft and the Chinese companies Shenzhou Digital and High Cool was announced in a press conference on June 28. Microsoft reportedly believes that blockchain technology will lead to the next industrial revolution, and has been looking to expand the portfolio of services on its cloud-based platform, dubbed Azure, for quite some time. Together with Shenzhou Digital and High Cool, they aim to utilize the “in excess” local Taiwanese talent to transform the financial, e-commerce and entertainment industries.
Sun Jikang, Microsoft Taiwan’s General Manager, believes the cloud-based Azure will enable Shenzhou Digital to improve its developing blockchain services, by enhancing the security and computational speed.
He added,
Taiwan has first-class engineering and technical talents, and their innovative thinking cannot be underestimated. At the same time, it carries a solid manufacturing and R&D foundation, plus excellent geographical location, with the superior conditions for the development of blockchain application, I believe that Microsoft’s tools in the strategic layout of the blockchain, and citing the global partner resources, is bound to be the vision of the industrial application of the blockchain.
Shenzhou Digital is a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its star product is called MasterDAX, which serves as a one-stop service provider for the trading needs of blockchain-based companies. To date, MasterDAX has helped 38 companies to overcome cumbersome obstacles, in their attempt to set up an exchange.
During the press conference, MasterDAX’s co-founder Li Cheng, also announced the launch of the MasterDAX 2.0 Exchange Cloud Service, in collaboration with Microsoft.
Sun Yutao, the founder of Shenzhou Digital, expressed his optimistic views of blockchain technology in the South Asian market. The company has been in the blockchain industry since 2014 and has previous professional experience in science and technology finance industries. Yutao says that as data is becoming the fuel of the blockchain sector, so should the distributed ledger technology be integrated to other technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), biometrics, and artificial intelligence.
He further stated,
Taiwan has abundant talents and is well aware of the Southeast Asian market. There are advantages that other countries cannot surpass. With this cooperation, it is hoped that the Taiwan market will be the focus of the development of blockchain business opportunities and become an outpost for the Southeast Asian market.
High Cool is a cloud management service provider (MSP) that envisions the massive adoption of computer usage, similar to accessing water and electricity. Its General Manager, Wu Jiefu, said,
We believe that in this era of public cloud market share growth, MSP’s business model will also intensify development, this time China’s blockchain technology, Microsoft Azure cloud services, and MSP for Blockchain technology services provided by High Cool will be the best model for future blockchain technology solutions to expand market and business services.
The MasterDAX will make use of Azure’s Kubernetes service (AKS), while its Workbench tools will provide Shenzhou Digital’s developers with access to Microsoft’s proprietary BaaS infrastructure. According to Yutao, Azure’s Active Directory, Key Vault, and SQL Database will significantly reduce development time and optimize operational efficiency. Microsoft considers Taiwan as a key player in the future of blockchain-based products. For this reason, it announced the launch of an artificial intelligence research hub in the Asian city, investing $33 million and aiming to employ a research team of 200 local talents during the next five years.
