The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Cointelegraph.com. The way I see it, investors in 2017 — and specifically in Q4 — wanted to buy Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for the sole purpose of exchanging it for specific ICO tokens they wanted to invest in. The buyers of Bitcoin and Ethereum did not want to own Bitcoin or Ethereum. They wanted to buy the newly issued initial coin offering (ICO) tokens, but they needed to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum as a short way to get what they ultimately wanted. The …

The Japanese arm of computer giant Microsoft has partnered with nascent blockchain startup LayerX to “accelerate” uptake of the technology, Cointelegraph Japan reported Nov. 30. LayerX, which formed in August as a joint venture from news curation app Gunosy and advisory service AnyPay, oversees blockchain integration for enterprise, including areas such as smart contracts and general consulting. Using Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution, the companies will seek to promote the technology further in the domestic economy. “We will support the introduction process in its entirety, even down to technical support of finished implementations,” an accompanying press release stated, adding: “Both …

American software corporation Microsoft has released a serverless blockchain-powered Azure development kit, according to an announcement published Nov. 15. The new product dubbed the “Azure Blockchain Development Kit” purportedly improves the capabilities of Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain Workbench. It contains features like off-chain identity and data, monitoring, and messaging application programming interfaces (API) in a format that can be used to develop blockchain-based apps. Per the blog post, the initial release will focus on three core objectives, such as “connecting interfaces, integrating data and systems, and deploying smart contracts and blockchain networks.” The product will purportedly enable individuals, organizations, and devices …

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 …

The average earnings of a blockchain engineer have soared to between $150-175,000 per year, CNBC reported Oct. 21, citing Hired’s 2018 State of Salaries Report. Far higher than the $135,000 average software engineer salary, the figure puts blockchain engineers in the same pay bracket as artificial intelligence (AI) specialists, as the pace of blockchain recruitment demand gathers pace. The figure is also notably higher than other specialized tech engineering roles; Hired CEO Mehul Patel told CNBC that: "There's a ton of demand for blockchain. Software engineers are in very short supply, but this is even more acute and that's why …

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is forming a dedicated focus group for blockchain exploration made up of both big business and cryptocurrency players, Indian daily newspaper Economic Times reported Monday, Oct. 15. Confirmed in a tweet Tuesday, the IAMAI, whose remit is to “expand and enhance” the online and mobile sector, will use its “Blockchain Committee” to “identify opportunities and challenges and work with government, industry and startups” to develop a blockchain “ecosystem.” The move comes amid testing times for cryptocurrency in India, with the country’s supreme court still deliberating on the legality of the Reserve Bank …

The Bank of America (BoA) has estimated that blockchain could be a $7 billion market and provide a major boost to corporate giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, CNBC reports Oct. 2. While BoA’s analysts refrained from putting “a time stamp” on the industry becoming a major, multi-billion dollar addressable market, they reportedly based their estimates on a ballpark figure that two percent of corporate servers would be used to run blockchain at a cost of $5,500 annually. BoA research analyst Kash Rangan told CNBC that the technology is well-suited to some of the world’s largest corporations, noting for example …

“Big Four” audit and consulting firm Deloitte has outlined five basic areas of development for blockchain technology in order achieve widespread adoption, according to a study published September 28. According to Deloitte, in order to be adopted by enterprises on a mass scale, blockchain technology should overcome five major obstacles – the possibility of time-consuming operations, lack of standardization, high costs and complexity blockchain applications, regulatory uncertainty, as well as the absence of collaboration between blockchain-related firms. Identifying the area that needs the most development, Deloitte singled out the problem of possible operational delays on a distributed ledger network. The …

U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T has announced the creation of a suite of blockchain solutions designed to work with tech from IBM and Microsoft, according to AT&T’s September 26 press release. AT&T’s blockchain solutions — which will work with the IBM Blockchain Platform for data recording and Microsoft Azure’s blockchain technology — aim to “bring additional transparency and accountability to even the most complex supply chains” for its enterprise customers. The telecoms company’s blockchain-based suite plans to develop the digitalization of enterprise customers’ business processes, noting that industries including manufacturing, retail, and healthcare can utilize the solutions. Andy Daudelin, vice president …

Software giant Microsoft has requested European Union (E.U.) approval of its $7.5 billion acquisition of web-based hosting service GitHub, Reuters reported September 17. According to Reuters, Microsoft filed the request last Friday, and the decision will be made by October 19. GitHub is an open-source coding website, a repository which hosts developers’ source code projects in a number of different programming languages and keeps track of any changes made. In 2017, the GitHub community reportedly reached 24 million developers, working with 67 million repositories. With the acquisition, the company is looking to strengthen its cloud computing arm against American electronic …

Leaked code targeting Microsoft Systems which hackers allegedly stole from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) sparked a fivefold increase in cryptocurrency mining malware infections, Bloomberg reports Wednesday, September 19, citing a new cryptojacking report. Eternal Blue, the tool which can exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, is behind the now-infamous global cyberattacks WannaCry and NotPetya, which continue to cause disruption since they first surfaced in 2017. Bloomberg notes that Eternal Blue was allegedly stolen from the NSA in 2017 by a hacking group called the Shadow Brokers. Hackers have since been using the tool in order to gain access to …

New research from fintech analysts Juniper House has found that blockchain’s traction with large enterprises has risen by 11 percent this year, according to a press release published September 11. Juniper’s Blockchain Enterprise Survey: Deployments, Benefits & Attitudes (Second Edition) found that 65 percent of responding large enterprises – defined as those who employ a minimum of 10,000 staff – are “considering or actively engaged” in blockchain deployment, up 11 percent from the corresponding 54 percent figure last year. Further data analysis shows that nearly a quarter of firms have moved beyond blockchain proofs-of-concept onto trials and commercial rollouts. The …