Microsoft, Alibaba To Build Anti-Piracy System on Ethereum
Software giant Microsoft has announced plans to develop anti-piracy measures on Ethereum by applying research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University alongside findings from Chinese conglomerate, Alibaba.
Microsoft’s Department of Research announced that its proposed system which would run on the Ethereum blockchain would be dubbed "Argus". Argus would also provide measures to protect piracy informers’ identity. In putting a stop to piracy, Argus would have to find the perfect balance between transparency and privacy.
Argus, because of its highly private nature and sophisticated security measures, is expected to encourage the general public to reveal pirated copies to the system. Rather than traditional anti-piracy efforts which relie too heavily on good faith, Argus would provide the assuring trust that often comes with decentralized systems and general public opinions.
Facts About Microsoft’s Anti-Piracy System
Part of Argus’ features is a "proof of leakage" mechanism that aims to amplify traceability. It is not the first time blockchain would be leveraged in implementations concerned with traceability.
Part of Argus features would allow pirated content to be traced back to the source with help from a watermarking algorithm.
To minimize gas fees, the team optimized several cryptographic operations on the Ethereum network, which would also ensure that “the cost of piracy reporting is reduced to the equivalent cost of sending about 14 ETH-transfer transactions on the public Ethereum network, which would otherwise correspond to thousands of transactions”. The Argus solution is also estimated to have high performance and efficiency, according to the researchers, with an off-chain throughput of 82.6 data trades per second per machine.
Why Microsoft and Alibaba Are Focused on Anti-Piracy
Microsoft’s products are believed to be some of the most pirated in the world. In 2018, former CEO Steve Ballmer complained that Chinese companies that paid for Microsoft Office were only a little above 1%. This offset in China alone cost the tech giant at least $10 billion loss in yearly revenue.
Alibaba's Taobao online marketplace has also had its share of problems, including being blacklisted by the U.S. Trade Representative's for offering counterfeit goods on the market in 2016.
This is not the first time Microsoft would be employing blockchain tech. Numerous reports have emerged of the company using the technology to implement some enterprise-focused solutions.
These research and development initiatives include a decentralized identification system and an NFT incentives scheme done in conjunction with Enjin. When it was first introduced, its Azure Blockchain Services generated quite a stir in the market, however, it was shut down a few months ago in May 2021.
Nevertheless, following the footsteps of other "Big Tech" companies, Microsoft has been cautious with its exploration of the crypto space. A view shared by the company president, Brad Smith, is that governments should be the only ones with the sole rights to issue currencies, and that companies should refrain from doing so. Blockchain tech remains dear to the company despite reservations about the crypto space and also a curious story with IOTA.
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