Bitcoin Forum

The full report can be found here: https://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-releases-bitcoin-based-id-tool-as-covid-19-passports-draw-criticism.

It's somewhat amazing to see Microsoft using Bitcoin tech for a solution. This will also arguably lead the way for more innovation with Bitcoin tech.

I think that'll be better to move this topic into Press subforum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=77.0). Make sure you use the proper format, with the date in front.

I've read about this on another newspaper this morning and I think that it could be a great advertising if used properly: although Bill Gates came out in the past with anti-Bitcoin speech, now Microsoft trusts it enough to use its blockchain. (And yes, I know, they've said it in the past too, cryptocurrency is not blockchain and they do like the blockchain tech).

Not really. They are interested in blockchains, not in the coins. See the correction.
They even have their own "Azure Blockchain" service (I only know it exist, not much else). So the surprising part is that they use Bitcoin's blockchain instead of one developed by themselves ;)

Edit: Correction: it looks like they are also interested in the coins, as stated in this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5254713.msg54601634#msg54601634). They were promoters of "blockchain is not Bitcoin" and I thought they've remained in that past.

I don't think that the point here is about Bitcoin but about blockchain. And that is not surprise,many industries are implementing blockchain technology for different purposes. The thing is that many still mix blockchain and Bitcoin but use of blockchain doesn't necessary mean the use of Bitcoin and that is the case with Microsoft too.
So, I don't think this news is something surprising.

Well, as long as it's open source and not really owned or controlled by the company... it will probably be ok for truely decentralized crypto network. The good thing about this is that we will eventually have multiple decentralized  ID systems to choose from. The ones that are truely decentralized, and have all the important Blockchain ideals will be the best choice

People do have this kind of perception or belief when anytime bitcoins price is being tagged on they do feel up some hype but if we do
read up and understand it carefully then we can really say that these kind of news doesnt really give much relevance towards bitcoin.
On blockchain tech then yes but for btc then it isnt really that connected at all.It wont really be that surprising if big companies out there
would make their own chain and use it for what purpose they do like.

But somehow when people do heard of something new then they would either go or search up into its origin or not.
It depends on a certain individual which would really somewhat give some brief glimpse of bitcoin existence.

Which is would certainly be more surprising to see if it was just about Bitcoin, being the Microsoft founder Bill Gates has recently stated his disdain for bitcoin, which is a load of bullshit.  Gates once stated his appreciate for cryptocurrency but later backed off saying that "bitcoin kills people".  Pretty sad statements coming from a tech genius.  I think bitcoin goes against his pre-conceived notions of how money should work, not that it's necessarily I bad creation. 

Bill Gates isn't involved with Microsoft much these days, he's just a major shareholder now. And even if he criticized Bitcoin in the past, he isn't a raging nocoiner/buttcoiner who devotes too much time to fightning Bitcoin. Maybe he doesn't even know  that Microsoft released this product, or simple doesn't care.

As for the tool itself, if the concerns of privacy advocates are real, then it's really not something we should cheer for, just because it uses Bitcoin.

Actually, this might not be the case as I've learned just recently. I've made a thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5254663) about a Microsoft patent for crypto mining using human body activity data (you can read about this thing here (https://euvsdisinfo.eu/report/microsofts-patent-666-involves-microchipping-people-in-order-to-monitor-their-daily-activity-in-exchange-for-cryptocurrency/?fbclid=IwAR2ojwgFqOpcM2PmW50LEvIbzSwCFsljRmmrhi-knnQc-26oib0Yjx23Z1o) as a part of debunking a myth). I know it's just a patent, but still.

I don't quite understand why they're even mentioning Bitcoin if what they use is, if I understood correctly, just Blockchain but not for currency purposes. There've been minor projects offering something like this, and now one of them is becoming big because of collaboration with Microsoft. I must say I feel concerned about this idea of strong digital identity because it can be exploited by companies exactly like Microsoft to push adds and more.

Privacy advocates are always going to be wary about Microsofts because like Facebook, it's often what they do in the past and this is why according to Christopher Allen is that the salient result may simply be accelerated data collection which is most likely what will happen. The two companies are going to be associated with breaching privacy.  The noblest cause they can do may still shred doubts to people particularly those who are concern about their privacy.

I know that. But he's still one of the founders of Microsoft and as I said, this could be interesting for advertising.


I think that people still remember him along with Warren Buffett and others as opponent of Bitcoin.


That's correct. Again, all this is good only as advertising. And I guess that they may use Bitcoin blockchain also for advertising / visibility. (They had plenty of choices, didn't they?)



Interesting, thank you. I'll correct my post.

But Gates is long gone from Microsoft, he retired, so did Balmer, etc. I guess he just keeps stock from the company but doesn't get involved with it anymore.

Recently Microsoft has been leaning towards open source a lot, certainly more than when Gates was actually still inside.

When we are talking about securing IDs, we need the safest blockchain that exist, and that's Bitcoin.
Creating their own blockchain with own incentives and enough miners would be either clumsy, expensive, unreliable or centralized and borderline illegal, and would probably defeat the purpose of why to use blockchain at all.

With Bitcoin, miners are already in place and any upkeep of the security takes care of itself.

This is definitely not that new. There were already a few announcements on news sites last year: https://www.coindesk.com/microsoft-launches-decentralized-identity-tool-on-bitcoin-blockchain

Not only that, Daniel Buchner, who I assume is probably working on this decentralized identity tool(based on his Twitter bio), has been really public about Microsoft being interested in Bitcoin for a while now. Check out his older tweets: https://twitter.com/csuwildcat