Microsoft has joined the Chamber of Digital Commerce. What difference would this bring to blockchain adoption?

Recently Microsoft has announced that it has joined the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a trade association focused on promoting distributed ledger technology.

What difference would this bring to blockchain adoption?

Chamber of Digital Commerce

The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) is the world's largest trade association representing the digital asset and blockchain industry.

CDC's mission is to promote the acceptance of blockchain technology through education, advocacy and working closely with regulators and industry. It was founded by Perianne Boring, who was previously a Forbes contributor and who began her career as a legislative analyst in the US House of Representatives.

Microsoft goes Blockchain

Microsoft offers blockchain as a service through Azure, its cloud-based platform for businesses.

In April 2016, Microsoft entered into a partnership with R3, a consortium of more than 40 banks looking at distributed ledger technologies. R3 will have access to Azure as well as dedicated resources from Microsoft.

Several new partners have joined Microsoft in its blockchain ecosystem – Jambucks, Bitswift, Storj, Vcash, Gamecredits, etc.

Why lobbying matters

Engaging with regulators in shaping policy is important, especially in the field of emerging technologies like blockchain.

It is important to put forward the industry's point of view and ensure that laws/regulations do not stifle innovation.

Marley Gray, Director of Microsoft, says:

“The Digital Chamber provides a vital and needed voice as regulatory frameworks develop. By bringing together companies at the forefront of the industry to share their experiences and plans, the Digital Chamber will help provide input into important public debates about the uses of distributed ledger technology and how to enable it to flourish while protecting the public.”

With several reputed companies like Chain, Digital Currency Group, Xapo, Overstock and Ripple being part of CDC, the Chamber is expected to have a prominent voice in matters relating to blockchain technologies.

The membership base is diverse and includes software companies, IT consultancies, financial institutions, investment firms as well as start ups. The CDC looks well placed to avoid the problems faced by the Bitcoin Foundation.

Bitcoin Foundation's Troubles

The Bitcoin Foundation, which was the organization tasked with promoting Bitcoin, has become mired in controversy. It failed to manage public perception about how it was efficiently managing its resources as it prioritized lobbying over allocating additional resources to developing the Bitcoin protocol. Failure to raise sufficient resources resulted in the Foundation's finances getting squeezed in 2015.

There have been other controversies as well. A founding member and the former Vice Chairman of the Foundation, Charlie Shrem, is currently serving a two- year sentence for money laundering.

Another founding member, Mark Karpeles, headed Mt Gox, the failed trading exchange which collapsed spectacularly in 2014.