Microsoft has launched a first-of-its-kind blockchain service for companies that can handle more than 1,600 transactions per second – much faster than current networks.

The ultrafast Coco Framework seeks to drive the uptake of Blockchain in enterprise networks. The Framework is easier to use than other blockchain products, making the technology widely available to firms in a range of sectors, including financial services, supply chain and logistics, healthcare and retail. Further, the Redmond based tech titan claims Coco's secure framework can help companies keep data safe and confidential.

Meanwhile software maker Microsoft has announced that it will launch the framework on GitHub in 2018 as an open source project and will work with customers and partners, as well as the blockchain technical and business communities, to continue advancing foundational blockchain technology.

The framework can handle more than 1,600 transactions per second – much faster than current networks.

The announcement comes amid heightened interest in Blockchain from businesses who until now may have been put off by its challenges, such as throughput, latency, governance and confidentiality. To ease such concerns, Microsoft is pitching Coco as easier to use than other Blockchain products and is targeting a number of industries including financial services, supply chain and logistics, healthcare and retail.

Unsurprisingly, global investment bank JP Morgan Chase, chip maker Intel and database specialists R3 have agreed to start using the framework in conjunction with their own blockchain ledger platforms.

‘Blockchain is a transformational technology with the ability to significantly reduce the friction of doing business,’ said Mark Russinovich, CTO of Azure at Microsoft. ‘Through an innovative combination of advanced algorithms and trusted execution environments, like Intel’s Software Guard Extensions or Windows Virtual Secure Mode, we believe this takes the next step toward making blockchain ready for business.’

It is interesting to observe that the Coco Framework also sits on Azure, and is compatible with any ledger protocol that can operate in the cloud or on any operating system and hypervisor that supports a compatible trusted execution environment.