The underlying shared-ledger model that powers the blockchain is a powerful tool, and one that has a lot of potential.
So it’s not surprising to see Microsoft look at ways of building blockchain technologies into its Azure platform, first with Project Bletchley, and now with its Coco Framework.
The Coco Framework isn’t a blockchain protocol. It’s a way of building a collection of trusted nodes, with tools for ensuring consensus between them and for managing confidentiality. Once you have this in place, you can bring in an existing blockchain protocol to set up and manage your distributed ledger.
Microsoft has already tested Coco with the Ethereum platform for blockchain-facilitated contracts, and it suggests that other tools, like Quorum and Corda, should also be compatible. It’s perhaps best to think of Coco as a layer between secure computing technologies and the blockchain.
