Microsoft teams with ConsenSys to build Ethereum-based distributed apps in Visual Studio
Michael del Castillo / CoinDesk :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the developer-tools leg of Microsoft's two-year blockchain build-out. The company had already partnered with ConsenSys on a cloud-based blockchain platform for financial institutions on Azure in late 2015 (Azure blockchain platform), and within weeks of this story it added the R3 banking consortium to the same platform (R3 banking consortium partnership).
What changes here is where Ethereum work happens: instead of living only on Azure as a service, Ethereum-based distributed app development moves directly into Visual Studio, putting the tooling in front of Microsoft's existing enterprise developer base.
First-order effects
- Developers using Visual Studio can now build Ethereum-based distributed apps inside their existing toolchain, lowering the barrier for enterprises already standardized on Microsoft tooling.
- ConsenSys gets distribution through Microsoft's developer ecosystem, extending its reach beyond its own client engagements.
Second-order effects
- Financial institutions evaluating Azure's blockchain offering — including the R3 member banks — gain a smoother path from experimentation to production Ethereum applications, reinforcing Azure's position as the default enterprise blockchain host.
- Competing cloud providers face pressure to match integrated blockchain tooling rather than selling raw infrastructure, pushing differentiation up the stack toward developer experience.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Ethereum consolidates as the default application layer for enterprise blockchains — a trajectory that culminates in the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance forming with Microsoft, Intel, JP Morgan, UBS and others (Enterprise Ethereum Alliance) and later Microsoft's token-minting platform on Azure (Azure Blockchain Tokens).
The trend: Enterprise blockchain adoption is being driven less by infrastructure launches than by embedding chain tooling into incumbent developer platforms, with Microsoft's Azure-and-Visual Studio pairing as the template.