Tech giant Microsoft is looking to improve the security of smart contracts and is organising a working group – “Kinakuta” – for this purpose.
CoinDesk reported that Kinakuta aims to make it easier for the industry to share information and tips about smart contracts - self-executing contractual states, stored on the blockchain.
While organisations world over are realizing the benefits that blockchain and smart contracts can unlock, the recent DAO hack has highlighted the security risks of this new technology. According to Microsoft's director of business development and strategy Marley Gray, open information and new tools might help developers avoid future mistakes.
"We feel there’s a huge opportunity here to involve the community. Kinakuta is the community building around Microsoft best practices and elsewhere, to collect best practices and tools and involve developers in creating these best practices”, Gray told CoinDesk.
He further said that along with Andrew Keys, head of global business development at Consensys, he has drafted a list of 35 developers and companies that Microsoft wants in the group, which includes the likes of the Ethereum Foundation, R3CEV, and startup BlockApps.
In July, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, launched the Smart Contracts Alliance (SCA) – an industry initiative of leaders in smart contracts. SCA aims to promote the real-world application of this ‘vital technology’. SCA also aims to enhance and educate the adoption of smart contracts, offer a forum in order to develop industry standards and help in shaping a pro-growth policy framework.
Microsoft is one of the founding participants of SCA, which also includes Bitfinex, Blake, Deloitte, Cognizant, IBM, Pillsbury Law and Georgetown University's Center for Financial Markets and Policy, among others.
