News
Vodafone connects its blockchain SIM to tokenized deposits – Ledger Insights
Vodafone launched its Digital Asset Broker (DAB) blockchain network in 2022 with the aim of connecting IoT devices to make financial transactions. Sumitomo has since invested in the joint venture which it renamed to PairPoint. David Palmer, Chief Product Officer at PairPoint, said this last week Yahoo Finance which it uses DAB and account abstraction to connect to tokenized deposit networks like Onyx by JP Morgan.
Digital Asset Broker provides blockchain middleware, so apps don’t interact directly with the blockchain. “We act as an intermediary for large enterprises that want to write on a public blockchain,” Palmer said. “These large financial services (companies) can connect to the Vodafone blockchain, it gets registered there and then a smart contract using things like account abstraction, allows for cross interoperability.”
So far PairPoint has focused on the economics of things by using a SIM card with additional software to add a layer of identity to an IoT device, turning it into a device passport. The partners have used it in particular for automotive applications and for cargo tracking.
However, Palmer also discussed the potential for broader use of SIM cards as the hardware needed to secure digital wallets on smartphones. One of China’s state-owned telecommunications companies, China Telecom, has developed a web3 SIM card. It also supports central bank offline digital currency payments (CBDC).
Vodafone’s prediction is that there will be 5.6 billion digital wallets by 2030.
The history of Digital Asset Broker
Digital Asset Broker’s first initiative in 2022 was with Mastercard and EnergyWeb experiment with electric vehicles that communicate autonomously with charging stations. This time last year, Vodafone launched the DAB project as a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation taking a 20% stake, which was followed by rebranding to PairPoint. At the time the aim was a launch in the automotive sectors in Germany and the UK, with applications ranging from pay-as-you-go, charging point transactions, automatic toll payment and fleet management.
PairPoint subsequently signed an agreement with the public blockchain Aventus for cargo tracking at airports. Last December you collaborated with Deloitte and Major shipping company Hapag Lloyd use blockchain solution for goods identification and tracking. Meanwhile PairPoint has collaborated with Chainlink Labs and InnoWave use Chainlink’s Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) for electronic bills of lading (eBL), the key document of ownership when cargo is loaded onto a vessel. Vodafone is also a validator on the Chainlink network.
So far PairPoint’s website remains focused on enterprise use cases rather than using the SIM for consumer applications. He recently joined Hyperledger with the goal of integrating with Hyperledger Besu, the Ethereum client used in both public and private blockchains. That announcement also referred to applications in supply chains and mobility rather than broader consumer wallets.