Microsoft this week announced the shuttering of its relatively new Azure Blockchain Service. As of this past Monday, no new member creations or deployments are being accepted though existing projects will continue to be supported until September 10th when the entire platform is set to shut down.
The tech giant is strongly encouraging all users to migrate their projects to other blockchain platforms such as Quorum Blockchain Service which is mentioned by name in some new support documentation that was just published.
The Quorum Blockchain Service is currently owned by ConsenSys who purchased it from JP Morgan in late-2020 for an undisclosed amount. This US-based company focuses primarily on the Ethereum blockchain and is involved in a variety of blockchain and cryptocurrency projects such as Metamask, a popular Ethereum wallet web browser extension.
While the shutdown of Azure Blockchain Service may be disappointing for some blockchain enthusiasts, it’s unlikely that this is a sign of Microsoft withdrawing interest from the technology completely. Interest in blockchain in general is on the rise in a number of industries and Microsoft has already shown interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency for other projects such as its ION decentralised ID project which launched on the Bitcoin mainnet just last month.
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