Earlier this week I had the opportunity to be invited to a private event here in Seattle regarding Blockchain technology. The even itself took place on he 48th floor in the old Washington Mutual Tower. The fog disrupted what might have been a beautiful view. The event itself went by rather quickly but it did a great job of explaining how the Blockchain technology can be leveraged in more ways than just creating the killer app "Bitcoin". Some interesting points that were brought up were:

• Using the Blockchain as a ledger to keep track of IP, land titles, and other assets
• Goldman Sachs has filed a patent for crypto-security settlement on a blockchain.
• Microsoft has declared that the Blockchain is one of the "key must win workloads" for their Azure cloud platform and business. They are also collaborating with major U.S. banks using the technology. 
• Some governments are already beginning to invest in their own local, or private, blockchains.

What was most surprising to me was the actual plans and partners Microsoft has for their Blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) tech they have on their Azure cloud platform. Some of those partners include:

• Bitpay
• Multichain
• OpenChain
• Coinprism
• Augur
• Slock.it
• Ripple

Putting tech like this in the hands of developers easily will be a huge factor in spreading it far and wide. The event was exciting to me as I was able to speak to a number of people about an area in tech that I have been involved with for a few years now and it also showed how many people are interested in learning more. I hope to be a part of those bringing this technology to the masses over the upcoming years.