Amazon, Microsoft, and Alibaba: How Three Leading Internet Giants are Using Blockchain

Updated: 26.08.2026

When this article first ran in 2018, Amazon’s crypto-related domains, Microsoft’s identity work and Alibaba’s food-traceability pilot were early signs of broader corporate blockchain adoption.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) turned its early blockchain work into public- and private-network infrastructure. Microsoft launched a public identity network on Bitcoin but shifted its enterprise identity service to web-based identifiers. Alibaba Cloud continues to offer permissioned blockchain services, while Ant Group operates a separate enterprise blockchain business.

AWS Expanded From Private to Public Blockchain Infrastructure

The 2018 article focused on speculation that Amazon’s domain registrations could lead to a token or exchange. Amazon instead built a cloud product for developers and businesses using blockchain networks.

AWS announced Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) in 2018 and made its Hyperledger Fabric service generally available on April 30, 2019. Ethereum support followed in March 2021, allowing customers to provision nodes connected to the public Ethereum network.

AMB now supports Ethereum, Polygon, Bitcoin, and Hyperledger Fabric across its products. AMB Access provides managed access to public blockchain infrastructure, while AMB Query provides application programming interfaces (APIs) for historical and real-time blockchain data. Hyperledger Fabric remains available for organizations that want private networks with controlled membership.

Amazon’s blockchain business is therefore broader than the private-network service it launched in 2019. It provides infrastructure for public-chain applications alongside permissioned enterprise networks without turning Amazon’s consumer retail operation into a crypto platform.

Microsoft Launched ION on Bitcoin

Microsoft’s 2018 work focused on decentralized identity, including possible features for Microsoft Authenticator. In 2021, it launched ION, a public and permissionless decentralized identifier network anchored to Bitcoin.

ION allows anyone to create and resolve decentralized identifiers without a central operator. Microsoft described it as a layer-2 network built on Bitcoin and released the project as open source. The network does not use a separate token or rely on Microsoft to control participation.

Microsoft’s identity work also produced Entra Verified ID, a service for organizations to issue and verify digital credentials. Microsoft Authenticator can store and present those credentials, giving users a wallet-like role in the system.

Entra Verified ID Moved to did

Microsoft’s public ION network and its enterprise credential service no longer use the same trust model. Azure Blockchain Service was retired in September 2021, ending Microsoft’s managed blockchain offering for Azure customers.

Although ION remains an open-source public network, Microsoft removed did:ion as a selectable Entra Verified ID trust system in December 2023 and moved new deployments to did:web. The current service uses domain names and conventional web infrastructure to resolve decentralized identifiers.

Microsoft retained the digital-credential model envisioned in 2018 while removing blockchain anchoring from Entra Verified ID’s current trust system. ION remains a separate Bitcoin-based public network rather than the foundation of Microsoft’s enterprise identity service.

Alibaba Cloud Maintains Permissioned Blockchain Services

Alibaba’s 2018 Food Trust Framework pilot tracked Fonterra products shipped from New Zealand to consumers in China through Tmall Global, focusing on supply-chain traceability and food fraud rather than cryptocurrency.

Alibaba Cloud now offers Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) for enterprise networks. Its current documentation supports Hyperledger Fabric consortiums, where organizations join through invitations, channels, and access permissions. The service also documents Ant Blockchain, a proprietary technology for enterprise users.

That makes Alibaba Cloud’s blockchain strategy closest to private-network infrastructure. It offers companies a way to build and operate permissioned consortiums rather than a consumer-facing cryptocurrency service.

Ant Group Built Separate Enterprise Blockchain Products

Ant Group is a separate corporate entity in which Alibaba held a 33% equity interest on a fully diluted basis as of March 31, 2026, according to Alibaba’s fiscal 2026 results.

Ant developed AntChain as its enterprise blockchain brand. During its 2024 reorganization, Ant Digital Technologies became an independently operated business unit. Ant’s 2024 sustainability report said AntChain technology had been applied across electric vehicles, batteries and photovoltaic panels, with more than 12 million connected devices.

A 2021 ranking based on Derwent World Patents Index data placed Ant Group first for cumulative blockchain patent families, with 2,298. That figure included 586 patent families added in 2020.

The patent figure is a historical measure of intellectual-property activity. It does not establish a current global ranking, show how many inventions reached production or prove that AntChain’s commercial systems were built from every patent family.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Alibaba Chose Different Paths

The early domain registrations, identity projects and traceability pilots documented in 2018 showed corporate experimentation, but they did not reliably predict the long-term products each company would build.

AWS expanded from private Hyperledger Fabric networks into public blockchain infrastructure. Microsoft developed ION on Bitcoin but uses did:web for new Entra Verified ID deployments. Alibaba Cloud operates permissioned blockchain services, while Ant Group has developed separate enterprise products through AntChain and Ant Digital Technologies.