MWC19 Notes: Back to 5G, telecom operator Nugget blockchain

On June 26-28, the World Mobile Congress (MWC19 Shanghai) was held in Shanghai, which is the most influential top event in the global mobile and technology industry, and the vane of the development trend of the global communications industry. Huawei's first 5G folding screen phone was unveiled at the MWC19 conference in Barcelona in February this year.

The theme of MWC19 Shanghai is “Zhilian All Things”. The organizer said: Zhilian Wanwu marks the coming of a new era.

The venues are overwhelmingly vocabulary and products such as 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and big data. However, car networking, edge computing, information security, industry 4.0, VR video, etc., in the blockchain practitioners, the blockchain can play a "revolutionary" value, the blockchain word is difficult to trace.

The peers who participated in the conference spit out, were rejected by the mainstream, and the blockchain was still a minority.

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MWC19 has a total of 19 theme summits in 3 days, and the blockchain theme summit was scheduled for the first afternoon. Compared with other venues, “the crowd is overcrowded”, the venue is slightly deserted, and the location is not full, slightly shabby.

But after an afternoon of listening and communication, we can find that many companies have adopted blockchain technology in their products, but the blockchain is not enough to be used as a propaganda word to “lift the price”, or to use the blockchain. The product is still in the verification phase and does not constitute a complete solution. Even the blockchain summit is so “self-introduction”: we are at the forefront of the maturing blockchain technology, but we need to understand how to avoid hype and how to make the blockchain really work in the business.

The big talk about the “blockchain” is not the same as the currency circle. The giants in these communication and chip fields are more willing to talk about regulation, regulation, technology integration, user friendliness, and support for Internet of Things and artificial intelligence applications. class.

The following content is from the live sharing of the “Block Chain Summit”.

▲MWC19 Block Chain Summit Roundtable Forum

From niche markets to mainstream markets: technology development + catering to regulation

How does the blockchain move from the niche to the masses? In response to this problem, the sharing of Pandu Sastrowardoyo, Secretary General of the Myanmar Blockchain Association, is very representative. She said that she must have critical thinking skills. In the area of ​​blockchain, as research deepens, developers become more and more likely to find it difficult to keep up with the latest developments. Practitioners must use their mental power to filter industry noise, self-education and self-energy.

"Because the media, we are bombarded with different things every day, how do we see through everything behind us and see the potential? This is also a problem we bring the blockchain to the mainstream society," she said.

In contrast, entrepreneurs have a more direct view. Stefan Rust, global head of business development at Bitcoin.com, and Peter Lin, CEO of AAX, believe that the development of their respective businesses can stimulate the blockchain to the masses. Application is the way the blockchain goes to the mainstream.

“The popularity of mobile phones is because it is user-friendly in technology and products, and users can afford it. The development of blockchain also depends on user-friendly killer applications.” Peter Lin said, “Technology is neutral, it depends on How it is used by humans. At AAX, we want to ensure absolute compliance and meet regulatory requirements. This is also a prerequisite for the mass market to accept the blockchain. We must be careful to strike a balance between regulation and innovation."

Speaking of regulation, Paul Ulrich, senior policy manager for GSMA government and regulatory affairs, believes that blockchain as a technology itself is not too controversial. However, there are interests among members and they need to be coordinated and regulated. He cited Facebook's digital currency Libra as an example. He said that although FLibra balances transactions and security, there are some problems, such as the possibility of introducing monetary policy risks to some countries, such as currency depreciation or capital outflows.

Blockchain exploration in the telecommunications industry: new business waiting for an outbreak in the 5G era

CBSG is a blockchain alliance formed by a global telecommunications operator to provide cross-operator payment services (CCPS), which is intended to facilitate global telecom operators' global mobile payment services. Wu Ling, chairman of the alliance, said that compared with Facebook's launch of Libra in 2019, the alliance formed by SoftBank and TBCASoft began to try to solve the cross-border payment problem with blockchain in 2016.

“We have 6 million members and are affiliated with different operators. We work together to build a basic technology platform and build different applications to discover opportunities. Operators have regulatory capabilities in some countries and are trustworthy.” In Wu Ling’s view, communication service providers can With blockchain technology to create services such as secure clearing, personal authentication, and the Internet of Things, these services can be deployed globally through the ITU.

Jia Xueqin, an outstanding engineer of China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute, said in the sharing of "Internet of Things + Blockchain to Help the Future of Innovative Business Development" that in the future, industries, agriculture, medical care, smart cities and other fields will spawn a diversified Internet of Things ( IOT) application. It is precisely in the IoT domain that the blockchain has four value points. First, collect data from the device to the cloud. Second, prevent historical data from being tampered with. Third, realize the data association between the information world and the physical world. Fourth, achieve value measurement.

She believes that blockchain technology is already commercially viable. And network performance is an important factor for nodes to complete consensus, 5G will improve consensus efficiency. Operators will have a lot of potential opportunities in the blockchain space. Taking the second-hand battery evaluation of new energy vehicles as an example, the charging and discharging information of the IoT collection battery exists on the blockchain, and the battery can be valued when the battery is sold twice.

Liang Wei, head of China Telecom's blockchain business R&D, said in a share that China Telecom has made breakthroughs in blockchain applications. For example, they integrated encryption algorithms into SIM cards to provide users with privacy protection for critical data. In addition, China Telecom has also utilized blockchain technology in electronic tendering and clearing systems. “The blockchain provides more technical paradigms for value. With the advent of the 5G era, the blockchain is bound to give operators a new round of opportunities,” he said.

What can a telecom operator do with the blockchain?

In May 2019, the "Blockchain Telecom Industry Application White Paper (Version 1.0)", jointly published by China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Telecom, China, and ZTE, was released.

This white paper summarizes the application of the blockchain in eight scenarios at three levels of the telecommunications industry.

Telecommunications equipment management: Combining IOT, AI and other technologies, it provides operators with automatic collection of equipment inspection data, trusted storage, record traceability, intelligent analysis and equipment lifecycle management. The blockchain value is stored in the underlying data.

Dynamic spectrum management and sharing: The spectrum utilization of the spectrum is low, and the spectrum owner can “share” the licensed band as a blockchain node and transfer it as digital assets.

Digital identity authentication: Operators use the real-name authentication user database to form an identity authentication alliance chain, attract third-party enterprises to settle in, and build a blockchain-based identity authentication platform to provide identity authentication, verification, and confidential login. The device can also implement digital identity authentication.

International roaming settlement: equipped with intelligent contracts for automated configuration, reducing labor reconciliation costs between operators.

Data Circulation and Sharing: Build a decentralized data distribution system to achieve data validation, pricing, security, privacy protection and other services.

Internet of Things: Establish several stores to promote high-speed Internet of Things to ensure data privacy and security.

Cloud network convergence: realize data cross-network docking, cross-cloud docking, and cloud network integration.

Edge computing: Using blockchain technology, converging all kinds of resources to build an "infinite node" resource network, helping edge computing deployments to save costs and improve efficiency.

The application of the above eight blockchains in the telecommunications industry only represents the transformation of the original services by the telecom operators with the help of the blockchain. However, from the activities of MWC19 Shanghai, telecom operators can use their own industry advantages and the construction capabilities of 5G base stations, the business imagination can be more extensive. As Wu Ling, chairman of the International Telecommunications Blockchain Alliance, said, “Participating in the revolution has the opportunity to grow.”

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