After first emerging as the basis for the Bitcoin protocol, blockchain has since gained momentum as a way to digitize business processes that extend beyond the boundaries of a single organization. While digital currencies use the shared ledger to track transactions and balances, enterprises are coming together to use the ledger in a different way. Smart contracts—codified versions of paper based agreements—enable multiple organizations to agree on terms that must be met for a transaction to be considered valid, empowering automated verification and workflows on the blockchain.
These digitized business processes, governed by smart contracts and powered by the immutability of blockchain, are poised to deliver the scalable trust today’s enterprises need. One Microsoft partner, SIMBA Chain, has created an offering that reduces the effort and time to start creating solutions using blockchain technology.
The Azure platform offers a wealth of services for partners to enhance, extend, and build industry solutions. Here we describe how one Microsoft partner uses Azure to solve a unique problem.
Simplifying blockchain app development
SIMBA stands for SIMpler Blockchain Applications. SIMBA Chain is a cloud based, Smart Contract as a Service (SCaaS) platform, enabling users with a variety of skill sets to build decentralized applications (dApps) and deploy to either iOS or Android.
The figure below shows the platform and the components (such as the Django web framework) used to communicate to a dApp using a pub/sub model. SIMBA Chain auto-generates the smart contract and API keys for deployment, and the app can be deployed to a number of backends for mobile apps (such as Android and iOS.) Communication to participate in the blockchain occurs through an API generated from a smart contract.
With this platform, anyone with a powerful idea can build a decentralized application. SIMBA Chain supports Ethereum and will add more blockchain protocols to their platform.
A time-saving technology
SIMBA Chain’s user-friendly interface greatly reduces the time and custom code generation required to build and deploy a blockchain-based application. Users can create and model a business application, define the assets along with the smart contracts parameters, and in a few simple clicks the SIMBA platform generates an API which interfaces with the ledger. By reducing application development time, SIMBA enables faster prototyping, refinement, and deployment.
Recommended next steps
Go to the Azure Marketplace listing for SIMBA Chain and click Get It Now.
Learn more about Azure Blockchain Service.