Microsoft Partners with Nasdaq to Provide an Interoperable Blockchain Financial System
Global technology giant, Microsoft has revealed that it has cemented a partnership with Nasdaq to provide an interoperable blockchain financial system for traders, via its Azure Blockchain arm.
As the world’s second largest stock exchange, Nasdaq has decided it is time to accelerate its blockchain technology capabilities, which it is now doing by integrating Microsoft Azure Blockchain services into the Nasdaq Financial Framework (NFF). Senior vice president of enterprise architecture at Nasdaq, Tom Fay stated:
“from our perspective, Azure is unlocking the power of the blockchain”
Launched in 2016, the NFF powers applications and software services designed to cover all the aspects of the financial marketplace, from trading and clearing to risk management, market surveillance, index development, data, management, testing and quality assurance.
Further to this, Nasdaq’s commercial technology arm, currently provides capital markets infrastructure at more than 100 exchanges, clearinghouses, and central securities depositories across 50 countries.
Citing the industry’s rising demand for the nascent technology, the partnership aims to integrate a ledger ‘agnostic’ blockchain system into the NFF, enabling Nasdaq customers to use different blockchains through one common interface, Nasdaq’s Fay stated:
“With multiple blockchains in use by various industry participants, we believe that the combination of NFF and Microsoft’s blockchain technology can remove some of the project complexities that exist in this realm,”
Fay went on to explain that the immediate opportunity is to integrate ledger technology in order to manage the delivery, payment, and settlement of transactions that may reside on multiple blockchains with different payment mechanisms, he added:
“we see the potential for blockchain to provide value in secure, frictionless and instantaneous matching of buyers and sellers.”
According to the Microsoft news release on their website, Matthew Kerner states “Azure will deliver highly secure interoperation and communication between the Nasdaq Financial Framework core infrastructure, ecosystem middleware and customer technologies, using an innovative blockchain micro-services suite to execute transactions and contracts.”
Senior vice president and head of product management for Nasdaq’s market technology business, Magnus Haglind explained that the advancement of nascent technologies such as blockchain are boosting the financial markets, stating that its “capital markets industry is evolving faster than ever”, he said:
“Key players in the industry are looking to these technologies to explore how they can become more effective and efficient, but also gain competitive advantage.”
Nasdaq have not been shy about their interests in blockchain technology, actively investing in the space for some time. Back in May, the DX.Exchange implemented Nasdaq’s ‘Matching Engine’, the most widely used electronic exchange component of its type in the world, thus officially launching the world’s first Nasdaq cryptocurrency trading platform.
As per a previous BCTech Report at the end of August, Nasdaq joined forces with ‘big four’ accounting and services firm Deloitte and blockchain startup Anquan, signing a deal to ease digital asset settlements using blockchain technology for the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX).
