Vodafone seems to integrate crypto wallets with SIM cards
UK-based telecommunications provider Vodafone hopes to bring blockchain technology to smartphone users by integrating cryptocurrency wallets with subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
The big move comes as part of the company's financing plans for India-based Vodafone Idea Ltd., a separate entity in which Vodafone Group owns 45 percent and is taking on nearly $3 billion in debt, including a $1.8 billion loan over the next two years. .
In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance Future Focus, Vodafone Blockchain Lead David Palmer discussed the company's plans to integrate blockchain technology into smartphone SIM cards.
“We expect more than 20 billion mobile phones to be in use by 2030, many of them smartphones. So we focused on connecting the SIM card to digital ID, connecting the SIM card to blockchains, and using the encryption in those SIM cards for that integration.
When giving an explanation on the figure presented by Palmer, They expect around eight billion smartphones to be in use by 2030 and predict that crypto wallets will increase to 5.6 billion in the same period – enough to hold 70 percent of all people. Earth.
Vodafone Group plans to raise debt by 2024 despite a financial tussle with India's Vodafone Idea Ltd, which recently sold $2.2 billion worth of shares.
Cointelegraph recently reported that the company has formed a 10-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to bring generative artificial intelligence (AI) services to Vodafone customers.
Announcing the deal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described the controversial nature of his company's AI technologies as saying, “The next generation of AI opens up huge new opportunities for every organization and industry around the world.”
This isn't the first time a company has worked to combine mobile phone technology with blockchain hardware. In the year In 2019, American startup Voltel announced its intention to create a physical wallet that could fit into a smartphone's SIM slot.
Related: Vodafone auctions world's first SMS ‘Merry Christmas' NFT for charity
