The global telecommunications industry will usher in change, and companies such as IBM, China Telecom, and Consensys will jointly build a blockchain platform CBN.

According to foreign media Forbes news on June 25, the ITW Global Leadership Forum (GLF), the world's largest communications company, announced on Monday that it has launched a blockchain platform. It is reported that the platform is called the communication blockchain network (CBN). ), which is expected to change the commercial settlement infrastructure of the ICT service provider industry, bringing billions of dollars worth of opportunities to the global industry.

It is expected that this communications blockchain network (CBN) will go live in the coming months and will be managed by a collaborative, industry-wide framework. At present, 11 operators have agreed to support the establishment of the platform, including Austria Telecom A1, China Telecom Group, Colt, Deutsche Telekom Group, IDT, Orange, PCCW Global, Tata Communications, Telefonica The company, Telstra and Telecom New Zealand (TNZI).

(GLF Forum member, picture from itwglf.com)

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In addition, the GLF Forum is working with leading technology providers to develop a reference architecture that creates an open, interoperable ecosystem for ICT service providers and technology vendors. It is reported that more than 10 technology providers have confirmed support for the platform, including IBM, Orbs, Consensys, R3, Amartus, Clear Blockchain Technologies, CSG, Difitek, Internet Mobile Communications, Subex, Syniverse, and TOMIA.

The hybrid of blockchain technology provides significant benefits, and by automating and improving security, the blockchain will change the settlement process between service providers. This will also help build consensus and a global framework.

It is reported that this communication blockchain network (CBN) will first use a combination of various technologies and service providers to create a framework, which is why it will include multiple vendors. When the network goes online, telecommunications and IT operators can choose the specific vendors they are willing to work with. Initially, this will be a collaborative framework that will help build consensus and a global infrastructure, said Utpal Mangla, vice president and partner of IBM Global Business Services.

The overall goal of the CBN network is to serve the broader ICT community by avoiding fragmentation. This will accelerate the adoption of automated billing applications while promoting the development of open source standards and APIs to enable interoperability between service providers.

“In the past 14 months, the GLF Forum and its partners have been providing rigorous processes for this platform, and we believe it is time to publish it. This blockchain-based ecosystem is at every stage. Both have been tested with great success, and we believe this platform heralds the future of ICT financial settlement," said Louisa Gregory, head of the GLF working group.

Mixed licensed and unlicensed blockchain networks

It's not hard to find that the list of telecom operators that manage this CBN network is impressive, and the technology providers that develop the platform are equally compelling. For now, CBN has a provider of licensed and unlicensed blockchain infrastructure (including IBM, Orbs, Consensys and R3), which makes the project relatively popular with the popular blockchain platform. Different.

For example, Orbs is a public blockchain infrastructure designed for businesses.

“Orbs is very different from IBM, Consensys and R3. We are not a private and licensed blockchain, but a public and unlicensed blockchain,” said Orbs co-founder Tal Kol. “For the entire market, The public blockchain is a huge win for enterprise use cases. We can let GLF believe that the public blockchain has great value for the enterprise. Our solution is built for the enterprise, it can be done External, non-independent, provable, unbiased third-party verification facilitates such a consortium and anyone can audit."

On the other hand, IBM's Hyperledger Fabric is a private, licensed blockchain network. In a recent Forbes article, IBM pointed out that the super-books project run under the Linux Foundation is a "greenhouse" for enterprise-level blockchain software development, with many powerful code contributors.

"IBM brings blockchain platforms and services to this portfolio. We are the only company in the world with more than 500 blockchain projects. The IBM blockchain provides security, provenance and transparency for the global settlement platform. It's critical. In addition, we have established important consortia around the world, including IBM Food Trust and the World Wire network, and this settlement platform will follow these lines,” Mangla said.

In addition to IBM and Orbs, Consensys also allows companies to operate on the Ethereum blockchain. According to Dr. Andreas Freund, Head of Technology at Consensys,

“Consensys can design and develop multiple DLT (distributed ledger) solutions. Our successful implementation and support of more than 50 blockchain/DLT projects around the world is a good proof. For this project, we are the “transaction coordination layer”. Solutions have been proposed with the decentralized identity of network participants, which have been successfully deployed on the Ethereum platform and can be integrated with other DLTs."

Obviously, the telecom industry intends to use blockchain technology in its supply chain and network, and the multiple blockchain providers owned by this CBN platform indicate that the telecom industry believes that its problems require the use of multiple blockchains. solution. However, only time will tell us how everything works, if the licensed and unlicensed blockchain networks really work together in harmony.

“Since the technology partners have been chosen, the next step is to get everyone to collaborate and outline the use cases in more detail to understand where each infrastructure is. Then we need to set the standards so that they work together.” Kol from Orbs finally added.

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