Microsoft is seeking to develop anti-piracy measures on Ethereum using research from Chinese Internet giant Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, according to a document published by Microsoft’s research department and released by Forkast.

Microsoft and Alibaba will build a system against software piracy on Ethereum (Image: Zipmex)

In partnership with Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft says the new system, dubbed “Argus,” will run on a public blockchain and allow hacking informants to remain anonymous.

According to Microsoft, striking a balance between privacy and transparency was one of the main challenges in developing such a network.

Using a “leak proof” mechanism, Argus will allow pirated content to be traced back to the original source with a watermark algorithm, which means that there is no possibility of reporting the same material more than once without owning it.

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Addressing concerns of high transaction costs or “gas fees” that have plagued the Ethereum network, the team optimized various crypto operations to “ensure that the cost of hacking reports is reduced to an equivalent cost of sending around 14 ETH transfer transactions”.

Microsoft has been a victim of software piracy for years. In 2018, then-CEO Steve Ballmer complained that only 1% of companies in China that used Microsoft Office were paying for it, costing the Seattle company $10 billion in lost profits annually. .

Alibaba’s Taobao online marketplace has run into problems of another kind, and in 2016 it was blacklisted by the US Trade Representative’s office for selling counterfeit items.

Also, in March, Microsoft announced the launch of the ION Decentralized Identifier (DID), a decentralized identity platform built on top of the Bitcoin Blockchain.