Microsoft has announced its support for Waves, a decentralized platform for crowdfunding and creation of digital tokens, on its Azure marketplace.

The Waves platform primarily seeks to enable easy creation and distribution, trading and asset exchange, and leveraging a blockchain backend. It is based on a proof of stake consensus algorithm, which can help lower the carbon footprint of the more compute intensive proof of work models. The system has been designed to simplify getting started with custom tokens, which Microsoft said is a key component in solutions that enterprises are requesting.

“We are excited to announce our collaboration with Waves and their support of the blockchain efforts on Microsoft Azure”, Microsoft said in an online post.

According to the official announcement, the initial release works in conjunction with the testnet. With a one-click deployment, a node can be added to the testnet and developers would be able to start using the platform with minimal effort.

"As an open, flexible and scalable cloud computing platform, Azure has much in common with Waves. We’re both exploring new ways of doing computing, new ways of making powerful functionality accessible to end users in a way that has never been possible before. It is reassuring to partner with an organisation that shares many of our core values and that recognises the importance of enabling businesses to use these new tools”, Sasha Ivanov, CEO of Waves Platform, said.