In mid-December 2015, Microsoft made another decisive bet on blockchain technology, expanding its Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service platform with three new partners: Eris Industries, CoinPrism, and Factom. The move underscored the growing conviction among major technology companies that distributed ledger technology would become fundamental infrastructure for enterprise applications, and it positioned Azure as the leading cloud platform for blockchain development at a time when the industry was still in its earliest stages.
TL;DR
- Microsoft Azure added Eris Industries, CoinPrism, and Factom to its Blockchain-as-a-Service platform in December 2015
- Eris enabled custom blockchain deployment for legal and financial smart contract applications
- CoinPrism provided cryptographic asset issuance and tracking via the Open Assets Protocol
- Factom offered blockchain-based document provenance and was pursuing a land registry project with Honduras
- The platform already included ConsenSys for Ethereum services and Ripple Labs for distributed remittances
Three New Building Blocks for Enterprise Blockchain
The December 15 announcement from Microsoft Azure revealed a platform rapidly maturing to serve diverse enterprise blockchain needs. Eris Industries brought the ability for developers to deploy custom blockchains tailored to sophisticated legal and financial applications using smart contracts. Unlike public blockchains where anyone could participate, Eris allowed organizations to create permissioned networks with controlled access, a critical requirement for businesses handling sensitive financial or legal data.
CoinPrism, developed by Pixode Ltd, leveraged the Open Assets Protocol to enable developers to issue and track cryptographic assets on a blockchain, including the Bitcoin blockchain. The technology provided an auditable chain of ownership for digital commodities, opening possibilities for asset tokenization, supply chain verification, and digital rights management long before these concepts became industry buzzwords.
Factom contributed perhaps the most immediately practical application: using blockchain technology to establish provenance for documents and records. By tying documents to an auditable history using cryptographic keys, Factom created tamper-proof proof of existence and chronology. The company had already attracted attention for seeking a contract with the government of Honduras to build a more secure land registry, demonstrating real-world applications for blockchain beyond cryptocurrency speculation.
A Growing Ecosystem
The three new partners joined an Azure BaaS ecosystem that already included significant players in the blockchain space. ConsenSys, founded by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, provided Ethereum blockchain services through the platform, giving developers access to the smart contract capabilities that would eventually power the decentralized finance movement. Ripple Labs contributed its distributed remittance service, targeting the cross-border payments market that SWIFT was simultaneously beginning to reevaluate.
All blockchain-as-a-service offerings were accessible through the Azure staging area, with a dedicated marketplace being assembled to help enterprise customers discover and deploy blockchain solutions. Searching for blockchain-related offerings in Azure revealed the initial catalog, though Microsoft clearly intended to expand the selection significantly.
The Broader Enterprise Blockchain Moment
Microsoft’s Azure BaaS expansion came during a pivotal month for blockchain’s relationship with mainstream technology. The Linux Foundation had just launched the Hyperledger Project, bringing together IBM, Intel, and other major companies to build open-source enterprise blockchain frameworks. SWIFT was exploring blockchain for cross-border payments. The R3CEV banking consortium was growing, with major financial institutions committing resources to understanding how distributed ledger technology could transform their operations.
For Microsoft, the BaaS platform represented a strategic positioning that would prove prescient. By making blockchain development tools accessible through its cloud infrastructure, the company lowered the barrier to entry for enterprises curious about the technology but lacking in-house expertise. Bitcoin was trading at approximately $463 at the time, Ethereum at under a dollar, yet the infrastructure being built in December 2015 would support applications worth billions within just a few years.
Why This Matters
Microsoft’s December 2015 Azure BaaS expansion was an early indicator that the enterprise blockchain market would become a multi-billion-dollar industry. By providing cloud-based blockchain development tools before most companies even understood what blockchain was, Microsoft captured significant mindshare and customer relationships in the space. The partnerships with Eris, CoinPrism, and Factom represented a diverse approach to enterprise blockchain that went far beyond simple cryptocurrency applications, encompassing smart contracts, asset tokenization, document verification, and land registries. The vision articulated in these early Azure BaaS offerings would eventually materialize in the widespread adoption of blockchain for supply chain management, financial services, government records, and digital identity, validating the strategic bet Microsoft made when the technology was still viewed by many as a curiosity.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Past events described herein are historical in nature. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.
Factom doing land registry with Honduras was genuinely ahead of its time. most BaaS partners from 2015 disappeared within 2 years
Lars J. Eris smart contracts for legal applications was the original chainlink use case before chainlink existed basically
Microsoft charging ahead with BaaS while IBM was still writing whitepapers. ConsenSys for Ethereum and Ripple for remittance on Azure was a legit stack in 2015
Eris, CoinPrism, Factom… three names that really stood the test of time lmao. Microsoft was throwing spaghetti at the wall like everyone else
that Honduras land registry project with Factom was supposed to be THE use case. wonder how thats going
the Honduras project disappeared quietly. like most blockchain land registry pilots it ran into political resistance and funding issues
Nils spot on. the Honduras project got announced at a conference and was never heard from again. classic blockchain pilot theater
Azure BaaS was actually decent for prototyping. the real problem was nobody in enterprise wanted to run anything on a public chain. private chains defeated the whole point
^ agree, we tried deploying on Azure BaaS back in 2016 and it worked fine technically. the business case was the problem, not the infra
private chains were always going to win in enterprise. public chain security was unnecessary overhead for internal processes
0xCloudOps.eth Microsoft was throwing spaghetti alright but Azure BaaS paid for itself as a learning sandbox. most of us got our first chain deploy there
Anders V. deployed our first Quorum node on Azure BaaS in 2016. it worked fine technically but nobody in enterprise actually needed a blockchain for internal processes. a shared postgres would have done the job
Azure BaaS in 2015 was Microsoft trying to be relevant in crypto without touching any actual blockchain. enterprise blockchain theater at its finest
Tobias R. enterprise blockchain theater is right. IBM did the same thing with Hyperledger and where is that now
Eris Industries rebranded to Monax and pivoted to legal tech. probably the smartest move of the three partners
burn_hare_ Monax is still around actually doing legal contracts on permissioned chains. the pivot worked because they stopped pretending to be crypto
Factom was the most interesting of the three. actual document provenance use cases. shame they ran out of runway in 2020
Factom had working document provenance tech and still went under in 2020. good product wrong tokenomics. the lesson nobody in crypto learned
Eris pivoting to Monax and legal tech was the only honest outcome. enterprise blockchain always worked better as permissioned databases without the crypto theater
Factom running a land registry pilot for Honduras sounded amazing on paper and then just vanished. classic enterprise blockchain pilot grave
Factom pursuing a land registry project with Honduras and nobody thought to check if the government was stable enough to follow through. classic 2015 blockchain naivety
Factom had a working product for document provenance and still couldnt make it. enterprise blockchain without a token economy is just a slow database
Sora M. the Honduras deal fell apart within months. Factom couldnt even get basic sign off from the property institute. everyone blamed tech when it was pure politics
Henrik J. the Honduras deal was political theater from the start. you cant do land registry on a blockchain when the property rights themselves are disputed
Microsoft adding Eris, CoinPrism and Factom to Azure BaaS in 2015. all three are basically dead now. enterprise blockchain was a graveyard of good intentions
azure_ghost_ all three dead is accurate but the real story is Microsoft learned enterprise blockchain doesnt need a token. they kept Azure, dropped the crypto
Sigrid B. Microsoft kept Azure and quietly dropped crypto. same playbook as IBM with Hyperledger. enterprises want the database not the token