The main developer of Ethereum, the startup ConsenSys, has entered into a partnership with the world-renowned computer chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). This partnership will allow the chip manufacturer AMD to enter the market of cloud-based commercial blockchain services thanks to the development of a BaaS platform, which ConsenSys will be the one to develop. The technology being developed will make it possible to work with databases at high speed, significantly reducing time costs.
The creation of a fundamentally new cloud-computing structure is set to begin next month. ConsenSys representatives published documentation that lays out the terms of the agreement with Halo Holdings of Abu Dhabi on the W3BCLOUD project. The latter is developing a large-scale cloud architecture tailored for blockchain and other modern types of data storage and processing. AMD will be responsible for the hardware side and interaction with equipment owners. ConsenSys is also preparing a list of work to define innovative blockchain solutions. AMD will become a supplier of "high-performance hardware technologies". Company representatives noted that, against the backdrop of blockchain development and cryptocurrency adoption, the project should become one of the largest in the industry, and the collaboration will help both companies "load up" their staff and the surplus processor capacity they have produced.
The fall of cryptocurrencies led to a significant decline in opportunities to raise financing and purchase mining equipment. For ConsenSys this manifested in significant staff cuts, while AMD found itself in a situation of overproduction of expensive, high-performance GPUs and is gradually losing customers due to the emergence of stronger competitors. The company's shares began to rapidly decline in value starting in September of last year. Therefore, creating a joint BaaS-blockchain-as-a-service product focused on cloud-based, decentralized computing is a kind of anti-crisis partnership that will allow the IT company to use chips in the data centers it has built, and the startup to keep its coders busy creating a numerous line of applications based on smart contracts.
Joerg Roskowetz, who is in charge of the blockchain direction at AMD, describes the future platform as a universal solution for archiving, licensing, logistics, personalization, and identification, aimed at commercial and government services. In essence, the two companies will create something between Ethereum and EOS, only without cryptocurrency and the ability to issue tokens, so as not to cause problems with financial Regulators.
