Industry giant China Telecom recently released a whitepaper elucidating on its 5G blockchain phone. China Telecom Corporation first revealed the product in the China Internation Artificial Intelligence Industry Fair.
The news was reported by local sources earlier this week. This is another move by a state-owned industry player into the blockchain ecosystem. The company even plans on releasing their own smartphone based on the technology and has detailed the concept in the whitepaper released.
What is China Telecom?
The China Telecom Corporation is a state-owned telecom company. The company is one of the biggest telecom companies in China and boasts a userbase of over one hundred and fifty million (153M) users as in 2017. The company has an annual revenue of more than three hundred and fifty billion Chinese Yuan (CNY352.3bn). The company currently has more than a quarter-million employees (287,000).
China Telecom: The 5G mobile phone
The company advertised the phone as a device capable of managing digital assets as well as data in the 5G era. Moreover, many companies have taken an interest in blockchain, yet no mass production has occurred. China Telecom seeks to change it and establish a precedent.
The phone will become more prone to cyber-attacks as well as other frauds and scams. Furthermore, the user will be able to access his/her digital assets through the device. Moreover, all device information will be encrypted through blockchain and hence make it prone to information leaks or data theft.
However, the most useful applications of the device would be its digital identity verification and supply chain tracking. Digital ID verification allows users to authenticate their contacts. Meanwhile, supply chain tracking would allow small-scale businesses to keep an accurate record of there stocks.
The proposal by China Telecom is the most ambitious development of blockchain mobile devices to date. However, a launch date is yet to be announced.
China Telecom’s move towards blockchain might be a result of the “China Coin,” a state-backed cryptocurrency to be offered by the Chinese Central Bank.
