Operators accelerate the deployment of blockchain, and the 1 billion output value in the telecommunications blockchain field is about to be released?

Author: Yanyao Ping

Source: Shallot Blockchain

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"5G and the blockchain are mutually empowering. 5G aims to realize the interconnection of all things, and the blockchain is intended to achieve mutual trust of all things."

On January 8th, at the 2020 ICT Industry Trends Annual Conference, Yan Binfeng, director of the Terminal and Smart Card Research Center of China Unicom Research Institute, emphasized that the combination of 5G and blockchain will promote industrial upgrading.

At the recent "Intelligence + Academy" blockchain training conference held by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, Liang Wei, head of China Telecom's blockchain business R & D, pointed out:

"5G, Blockchain and the Internet of Things" is an important iron triangle combination in the integration of technology. 5G + Blockchain is conducive to the reversal of the interconnection of all things. 5G + Internet of Things can break through industrial applications, and Blockchain + Internet of Things can bring Come to the next sharing economy.

China Mobile Vice President Li Huizhen also publicly stated at the first Blockchain Service Network Partner Conference held in December that he will fully promote the deployment of BSN blockchain networks and make full use of 5G, Internet of Things and dedicated line resources to safeguard the blockchain industry Data collection and transmission.

"The output value of blockchain technology in the telecommunications field will soar from $ 46.6 million in 2018 to $ 993.8 million in 2023."

As early as July 2018, Research and Markets, a global market research institution, predicted that the telecommunications blockchain industry will reach an output value of nearly $ 1 billion in five years .

In fact, in promoting the implementation and application of blockchain technology, telecom operators have become a key force like financial institutions. They not only have the urgency of business transformation, but also have natural advantages of basic resources.

• On the one hand, with the rapid release of traffic dividends, the “volume-to-scissors gap” in domestic communications business has further widened, and it is difficult to continue solely relying on scale and traffic growth. It is urgent to introduce a new technology system to innovate business and find new profit growth. point. In addition, the upcoming 5G era also urgently requires the use of emerging technologies such as blockchain to ensure user data security and property security.
• On the other hand, under the strategic guidance of the country's vigorous development of emerging technologies such as blockchain, operators actually occupy a lot of advantageous resources. Not only can it rely on 5G and next-generation broadband networks to provide basic network services for the blockchain, but it can also take advantage of cloud-network synergy to provide powerful computing capabilities and storage services for increasing numbers of blockchain applications.

2020 is destined to be an extraordinary year for the communications industry.

The 5G commercial curtain has opened, AI penetrates into all industries, the Internet of Everything is accelerating, and the terminal industry's product form, applications, channels, users, and ecology are facing new changes and challenges. Integration and exploration of blockchain, Internet of Things and 5G It is urgent to integrate applications and open new doors of opportunity.

Scallion hereby combed the exploration of the three major domestic operators in the field of "telecommunications + blockchain". Facts have proved that in the past two years, especially in 2019, the three major domestic operators have significantly accelerated the pace of blockchain technology research and blockchain application practice, and have now penetrated into multiple business areas of internal management and external applications. In addition to jointly promoting the standardized construction of the blockchain and the establishment of the underlying technical facilities, the layout of various operators is gradually showing different focuses .

Joint collaboration: promoting the improvement of blockchain infrastructure

The current development of the blockchain industry is severely fragmented, and an industrialization-oriented blockchain standard system has not yet been formed. The three major operators have made a series of efforts in the construction of the blockchain infrastructure and the improvement of the standard system.

• As early as 2017, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have carried out related blockchain standardization work, and participated in and initiated the formulation of multiple domestic and foreign standards.
• In July 2018, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom jointly led the establishment of a "Trusted Blockchain Telecommunications Application Group" to lay out the blockchain industry, and obtained information from China's Information and Communication Technology Institute, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, The support of nearly 20 experts from 8 units including Huawei and Linkage Advantage has become an important force in promoting China's leading position in the international standard of blockchain.
• In May 2019, the three major operators led the release of the world's first White Paper on Blockchain Telecommunications Industry Application, which discussed in detail eight areas including telecommunication equipment management, the Internet of Things, cloud-network integration, and multi-access edge computing. Blockchain solutions and future development strategies. This is the first research result of the three major operators in the field of blockchain technology, and it is also the world ’s first white paper on the application of the blockchain telecommunications industry.
• In December 2019, at the "First Blockchain Service Network (BSN) Partner Conference" sponsored by the National Information Center, China Mobile, China UnionPay, etc., the "BSN Development Alliance" was established. China Unicom, China Telecom, People's Network Fourteen units, including Huobi China, Weizhong Bank, People's Network, and CMB International, officially joined the alliance as the first members, and all three operators are prominently listed.

Note: The Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is the first national-level alliance chain. It is planned by the top level of the National Information Center and is jointly launched by multiple companies across the public network, across regions, and across institutions. Blockchain service infrastructure.

It is reported that the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) will be officially launched for commercial operation in April 2020. From October 2019 to March 2020 is the beta period of the network, which is open to 400 enterprises and 600 developers for free Beta. At the same time, the BSN Development Alliance also officially launched a two-month BSN developer contest with the theme of "Traditional Information System Chain Reform Program" in December 2019, attracting developers.

On the emerging track of blockchain, it seems that the cooperation of operators is the general trend, and BSN provides a good opportunity for the three to cooperate in depth.

According to Tan Min, Secretary-General of the BSN Development Alliance, BSN aims to change the current high-cost problem of the LAN architecture applied by the alliance chain. Relying on existing network resources and data centers in various provinces and cities, urban public nodes throughout the country have been established. Node deployment) to form a blockchain service platform serving the whole country, thereby reducing the development, deployment, operation and maintenance, interoperability and supervision costs of blockchain applications.

It can be seen that BSN is a platform for close cooperation between operators and the blockchain industry, which helps the joint industrial chain to explore the application value of blockchain in digital assets, telecommunications assets, and new-generation network construction.

• In addition, on December 10, 2019, the "China Blockchain Report" released by Forkast.Insight mentioned that the three major domestic operators have cooperated to launch a plan to share customers' KYC data based on the blockchain and allocate Encrypting the Token or the unique hash to the corresponding customer can realize the arbitrary migration of KYC data between the three major operators.

Operators who have a large amount of user data, and jointly build a blockchain-based identity recognition system will be a major breakthrough in blockchain applications. In the long run, it may bring about drastic changes in the online Internet ecosystem.

"If we are stuck with chips by others, then we are indistinguishable from the United States in the field of blockchain." Liang Wei, head of China Telecom's blockchain business R & D, expressed full confidence in China's seizure of blockchain highlands.

Directors of each exhibition: Exploring the convergence point of telecommunication business and blockchain technology

Behind the three major operators working together to enter the blockchain is a sufficiently large market, and in this huge market, each operator has its own focus.

China Telecom: Focus on innovative business and create customer value flow entrance

Different from China Mobile's efforts to explore the underlying infrastructure of the blockchain, China Telecom actively participates in the standardized construction of the blockchain industry on the one hand, and vigorously promotes the exploration of new services based on the blockchain and the innovation in application Practice is more prominent.

At the Wuzhen World Blockchain Conference in November 2019, Zhao Jun, the head of China Telecom's blockchain technology, said that operators were "forced" to engage in blockchain. Previously, they only provided cheap underlying infrastructure and achieved success. Companies that provide Internet applications now have the spring of their operators. They want to break the monopoly traffic pattern of "BAT" through network resources and terminal advantages, and upgrade from "low-level pipeline providers" to "value traffic entrances" for customers .

China Telecom not only proposed the first ITU-T international standard for blockchain in 2017, but also used blockchain SIM cards (dSIM), electronic bidding based on blockchain, inter-provincial settlement based on blockchain, Based on the blockchain's trusted traceability, intelligent sorting, automatic sorting, automatic guidance, and drone distribution, etc., they have explored and practiced innovative businesses, actively trying to rely on emerging blockchain technologies to explore telecommunications and blockchain. Integrate the development of new businesses and create a value flow entrance.

China Mobile: Focusing on the "capacity" of the blockchain and cooperating with industry partners to build a blockchain underlying service platform

China Mobile's focus is on cultivating the underlying service capabilities of the blockchain and building a public blockchain infrastructure that is recognized by multiple parties, making up for the current gap in blockchain infrastructure at home and abroad.

In November 2019, Huang Yuhong, deputy dean of China Mobile Research Institute, clearly stated at the "5G Cooperative Innovation Summit" that "capability" is the essence of China Mobile's blockchain. In the development of the blockchain, China Mobile hopes to build a platform, build a set of blockchain capability system, reduce the threshold of blockchain technology, and help enterprises develop related applications more easily.

The threshold of blockchain technology is high, and direct application development is difficult. "Capability" is the fundamental requirement for the application and promotion of blockchain technology. The bottom of China Mobile's blockchain capability system is the connection capability based on BSN. At the same time, a service platform for blockchain is established. Based on the combination of CBaaaS business capability and 5G, it provides a high-level application with a service integration interface of trust + information , Thereby providing the platform capabilities of the blockchain, thereby promoting the development of the shared economy from the Internet of Things to digital finance to social livelihood, e-government and smart cities. "

Scallion Note: CMBaaS, China Mobile Blockchain as a Service.

To this end, China Mobile has done a lot of accumulation and layout in the early stage.

"BSN" was jointly initiated by the National Information Center, China UnionPay, China Mobile Design Institute, China Mobile Government and Enterprise Branch, China Mobile Financial Technology and Beijing Red Date Technology.

Among them, the National Information Center (affiliated to the Development and Reform Commission) conducts top-level planning, and China UnionPay and China Mobile use relevant blockchain technology and existing network resources and data centers to conduct independent research and development and deployment.

China Unicom: Patent Layout + Standard Construction + Blockchain Physical Application Exploration

China Unicom's exploration in the field of blockchain has three major blocks.

One is to actively promote the construction of international standardization such as blockchain and the Internet of Things.

China Unicom has made great achievements in promoting and formulating international and domestic projects and standards related to blockchain security and the Internet of Things blockchain.

Not only led the completion of the ITU-T's first IoT blockchain international standard project BOT, but also promoted the establishment of the ITU-T Distributed Ledger Application Focus Group to participate in the preparation of the blockchain security standard "Trusted Blockchain-Block Chain security evaluation index "and other standards.

At the ninth plenary session of the ITU-T SG20 in December 2019, it cooperated with ZTE, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China Information and Communication Technology Corporation, South Korea ETRI, etc., led and jointly led 7 ITU "Internet of Things Zones" "Blockchain" series of international standard projects is an important force to promote the development of industry standards in the "Internet of Things Blockchain" field and the mutual transformation of international standards and industry standards.

The second is the deep accumulation of patent layout.

China Unicom has been applying for blockchain patents since 2017. According to Innochy 2019 data, China Unicom has 224 cases, ranking 5th in the world, 2nd in the country (1267 after Alibaba), and 1st in central enterprises. According to Onion, China Unicom's patents are mainly distributed in smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, key distribution, data storage, real-name authentication, credit systems, and applications (digital copyright, traceability, number portability, certificate deposit, Internet of Things, etc.) 7 Directions.

In addition, China Unicom has also launched a variety of blockchain entity application exploration, especially the application of blockchain in government affairs, people's livelihood and other fields.

Tang Xiongyan, chief scientist of China Unicom's Network Research Institute, said in an interview that "China Unicom expands from internal management to external industry applications based on the technical characteristics of blockchain, and explores the use of blockchain to transform the communication network system and promote the blockchain Progressive development of the industry. "

According to the investigation of Onion, in terms of internal management , China Unicom has applied the blockchain to network operation and maintenance, identity authentication, point issuance, and data circulation and sharing, and has designed and developed a "blockchain-based WLAN business identity authentication system". "Blockchain-based identity authentication and data storage platform", "Blockchain-based digital point issuance and transaction system" and other systems;

In terms of external applications , efforts are being made to explore the integration of blockchain in medical insurance, courts, the Internet of Things, animal husbandry and other fields.

Such as "medical insurance user identity authentication platform", "blockchain-based smart court platform", "blockchain-based ecological environment monitoring trusted data platform", "blockchain-based IoT device management platform", " "Smart animal husbandry public service platform" and other industries.

Summary

In October 2018, James Crawshaw, a senior analyst at Heavy Reading, a well-known consulting firm, predicted that blockchain technology will be widely used by telecommunications operators in the next few years, and mainly in fraud management, identity management and IoT connectivity Key areas are promising.

Practice has proved that these areas are within the scope of several operators' innovative business priorities. Based on the monopoly characteristics of the giants in the telecommunications industry, it promotes the innovation and development of the entire industry. From the formulation and implementation of standards to large-scale application practices, it naturally depends on the core strength of the telecommunications giants and official institutions.

But in general, the layout of the three major domestic operator giants on the blockchain is still in the stage of technology accumulation, market cultivation and application exploration, and there is still a long way to go before the real explosion of blockchain energy.

Blockchain technology is a new opportunity and a huge challenge for telecom operators.

The integration of blockchain and telecommunications business does not happen overnight. The single blockchain technology cannot promote the efficient development of the telecommunications industry. It needs to be developed in coordination with other emerging technologies in the field of network communications, complementing each other.

From the perception of everything and the interconnection of everything to the intelligence and the mutual trust of everything, I believe that with the accelerated integration of blockchain technology with emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and AI, the telecommunications industry will bring a brand new user experience and business model.

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