Chinese telecom says blockchain has significant use cases in 5G technology
Blockchain in 5G Environment
In an interview published in Cebnet, a local Chinese news platform, the Chairman of China Telecom Blockchain and Digital Economy Joint Laboratory Jiang Wei said that blockchain has important and significant applications that can help drive the 5G network. He said that he foresees the use of the technology as a crucial component for enabling secure, trusted interaction and partnership in the different participating entities in a 5G network, such as device manufacturers, users and the network itself.
One of the important aspects that he sees is the social crowdfunding and capital investment. He has a firm belief that this will enable the industry to flourish as people will invest in the development of the 5G network. With a common and shared interest, this will drive up the adoption of the new telecom technology. According to him, blockchain will also help in sharing the resources of the network and overall increase the efficiency and speed of communication using 5G.
Issues to Be Dealt First
Wei, where he believes that the blockchain can help in implementation of the 5G network and technology, also realizes that a lot of work needs to be done before this can be possible. He pointed out to multi faceted issues such as the legal shortcomings as a lot of laws and regulations do not cover or are vague on the decentralized technology and its practical uses. Another issue in his opinion is the use of smart contracts. The smart contract is a trustless digital contract that can be used for a variety of purposes, without the need of an intermediary, from swapping of assets to sale of services.
“In addition, from a design perspective, smart contracts cannot be repaired or upgraded. Therefore, 5G smart contracts need to formulate standardized solutions for bug fixes and updates.”
As an emerging technologies, there are always issues. A simply coding error can lead to hundreds, perhaps thousands of smart contracts hung or even lead to malicious parties taking advantage. A proper and detailed study of the development of smart contracts can lead to a better implementation with the ability to rectify any issues that may arise in a timely and orderly fashion.
China Telecom, Blockchain and 5G
China Telecom is one of three mobile operators in the country and at second position, has a large subscriber volume. It also is operating in many other countries, either collaborating with local operators or having complete ownership of the service providers.
The country is at the forefront of 5G technology, with an expected 170 million users in China by the end of this year. China Telecom also has shown large interests in connecting blockchain and 5G in the past, as evident from a whitepaper it published in August last year, detailing how 5G blockchain phones would interact on the fast speed network. This included protection against fraud, loss of data and identity theft. a
