Microsoft to Use the Ethereum Blockchain to Prevent Piracy

Tech giant Microsoft in a recent announcement has stated that it is planning to use the Ethereum blockchain to combat digital piracy by relying on the network's transparent and decentralized nature. The Redmond-based company is now concentrating on new concrete system named Argus, which Microsoft dubbed as the "first public anti-piracy system."

Microsoft along with other researchers from Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University has recently laid out the design, implementation, and evaluation of the new system. Microsoft has said that Argus will be running on a public blockchain to allow digital piracy informers to remain anonymous while maintaining a great level of transparency for the wider public at the same time.

Argus will be protecting the identity of the informers and it will also allow the firm to backtrack the source of the pirated content. Furthermore, by optimizing various cryptographic operations, the cost for piracy reporting will be "reduced to an equivalent cost of sending about 14 ETH-transfer transactions," the company added, contrary to the typically transaction fees for which Ethereum is known for.