Microsoft to use TEEs within its blockchain services

Recent patent applications from Microsoft reveal that the company is looking at the use of trusted execution environments (TEEs) within its blockchain services

Information gathered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office showed that a TEE will support a “pre-determined type of blockchain or other security protocol code”.

TEEs have been suggested to be useful in the following ways:

• A TEE could be used to store a “pre-determined membership list” as well as other lengthy forms of data. This can then be used to validate and onboard members of the network safely and securely.
• A further use of a TEE could be to use it as a method of verifying blockchain transactions while allowing certain encrypted transactions to be processed without the need for decryption.

To explain in more detail how the TEE would work the patent reads: “In some examples, the entire network accepts the transactions, including chaincode transactions, and blockchain states are directly updated. In some examples, there is no need for a copy of the transaction in order to confirm a block.”

Although it has been reported that the filings were submitted by the company as far back as June 2017, Microsoft has now allowed blockchain applications through its Azure platform.