Microsoft and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) have announced plans to use a blockchain platform to allow Microsoft’s Xbox gaming partners, artists and content creators to track and manage payments and royalty contracts.

• Announced Monday, the companies said this will be one of the largest implementations of a blockchain-based financial system for accounting that will manage Microsoft’s end-to-end process for rights and royalties to its Xbox gaming partners.
• For the creation of new contracts, Microsoft will be using artificial intelligence powered by Microsoft Azure, which allows digitizing contracts.
• The blockchain application for payments and contracts has been tested – it has been through the “soak testing” stage used to measure the performance of a software application under a huge volume; findings showed it is capable of processing two million transactions per day, according to the statement.
• “In this go-live, we successfully generated the first round of partner payments utilizing blockchain and smart contract technology,” said Luke Fewel, general manager of global finance operations at Microsoft.
• The platform will streamline financial and operational processes with the ability to scale, reduce heavy manual overhead and improve the experience for Microsoft’s gaming partners, Fewel said.

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