Amazon’s cloud computing arm is looking to make it easier for customers to use blockchain with a new partnership announced recently. The cloud computing giant will team with a new start-up launching Tuesday called Kaleido, which was born out of leading blockchain incubator known as Consensys. The company is aiming to give AWS customers an “easy button” to get into the same technology that underpins bitcoin.
“They can focus on their scenario and they don’t have to become PhDs is cryptography, we give them a simple platform to build their company on blockchain,” said Steve Cerveny, one of the founders of Kaleido.
Blockchain technology records transactions on a public, distributed ledger, which advocates say gets rid of the need for a third party in many cases. The technology is touted as faster and more secure by advocates.
“Introducing Kaleido to AWS customers is going to help customers move faster and not worry about managing blockchain themselves,” Amazon Web Services said in a statement. It is the first Blockchain SaaS solution available on the AWS Marketplace and will help them rapidly advance their blockchain projects.”
Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary of Amazon that offers a paid subscription for cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments. AWS is using a partner-led strategy instead of building from the ground up. The founder of the Ethereum blockchain platform, which is what Kaleido and AWS will be using, said this is the biggest move yet by the tech giant to get into blockchain.
“This is a heavy duty, full stack way of getting the company into blockchain solutions,” said Joseph Lubin, founder of Ethereum.
Blockchain can help Amazon in other arms of the ever-expanding business he said, using supply chain as one example. Lubin said Consensys, which oversees more than 50 blockchain projects, has seen a major increase in interest around the technology.
“Three years ago we were getting calls from companies trying to spell blockchain and trying to order one in a color because their boss told them they should get a blockchain,” Lubin said. “At this point there are tens of thousands of companies around the world that have real sophistication around this.”
Amazon joins other tech giants including Microsoft and Facebook exploring use cases for blockchain.
