Microsoft has announced new additions to its Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service platform.

In today’s blog post, Marley Gray, Director of BizDev & Strategy of Cloud and Enterprise at Microsoft, unveiled five new alternative blockchains that Azure developers will have access to; decentralized KYC/AML/Credit service Algorythmix; community-based smart contract platform Expanse; hybrid algorithm digital currency Influx; privacy-oriented digital currency Monero, Proof-Of-Stake cryptocurrency Radium; open source blockchain application development environment Tendermint.

Gray said that the Azure platform is continuing to expand at “very rapid pace”, and that this rapid growth necessitates the creation of four new categories: Certified Marketplace, Template library, DevTest labs and Artifact repo.

The template library provides one-click functionality for developers to launch an Ubuntu virtual machine instance of their favorite blockchain.

“The template will automatically setup your lab with the most popular lab settings and include the library of existing Blockchain as a Service partner offerings. The library of blockchain artifacts is kept up to date, so you will know when new distributed ledger platforms, tools and services become available.”

In his post, Gray mentioned that the old DevTest Labs Artifact library will still be accessible, but new updates will only be added to the new Artifact repo location here.

All of the digital currencies added to Azure today experienced significant price increases; Monero is currently up 10%; Expanse is up by 45%; Radium is up 10.6%; Influx is up close to 400%.

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