Blockchain technology is starting to make waves in various industries such as real estate, education, banking, healthcare, and the legal sector, and it will continue to do so in the next several years. Its decentralized architecture is geared to transform and disrupt traditional business structures and models.
For a long time, blockchain has been synonymous with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to name a few. However, as innovators and entrepreneurs get knee-deep into this next-gen technology’s potential, the real-world benefits of blockchain are revealed, including immutability, speed, and increased security.
Blockchain technology makes it impossible or difficult to hack, cheat, or change a system. This digital ledger of transactions can be distributed and duplicated across the vast network of computers within the blockchain.
The mobile app industry can take advantage of the high level of security, enhanced traceability, and exceptional transparency that only blockchain can bring. It can impact the mobile phone sector’s transaction speed, operational efficiency, and customer service.
Projects built on blockchain shed light on how this technology can maximize the mobile phone’s potential. The 4th Bitcoin SV hackathon winner (bitcoin phone), for example, enables real-time data streaming while propagating Bitcoin transactions. More blockchain innovations can revolutionize how we use the mobile phone to work hard and play harder.
To give you a first-row seat into the future of the mobile phone industry, we’ve rounded up the ways blockchain can impact this crucial sector in business and everyday life.
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6 Ways Blockchain Will Transform the Mobile Phone Industry
Businesses are always looking for technological innovations to revitalize and future-proof their operations. Blockchain can be what these enterprises need to usher in a new area of communication and commerce.
1. Blockchain can offer a mobile phone experience to far-flung areas
Even in this technological advancement age, many remote areas have no access to either personal credit systems or bank accounts. The people from these areas may have smartphones but could not transact with businesses and other people online.
Users in these areas who have internet access can obtain loans and make online transactions. They can even transfer money to family and friends without paying expensive bank or transaction fees. Individuals can install mobile wallets to store tokens and coins until needed through blockchain technology.
2. Blockchain can facilitate mobile number portability
The mobile number has become a crucial digital asset and primary identity of today’s consumers. It is a vital tool for business transactions and personal connections. However, due to innovations from Communications Service Providers or CSPs, consumers clamor for the freedom to switch operators.
Blockchain technology can be a platform where consumers can have the flexibility of using another CSP without changing their numbers. It can make Number Portability (NP) possible for users anywhere in the world. Operators can still provide their services while enabling their subscribers to port out to another CSP. Data sharing and financial transactions can happen over a highly secure network.
3. Blockchain can promote the safe and efficient use of roaming networks
Issues within the roaming network, such as slow payment reconciliation, exorbitant fees from clearinghouses, and fraud, cost CSPs billions of dollars every year. Since CSPs do not have complete access to their roaming subscriber’s activities, it’s difficult to trace the trail and origin of these problems.
Blockchain can provide a solution to this billion-dollar dilemma by allowing CSPs to collaborate within a single blockchain Hyperledger Fabric network. It also enables direct data exchange with immutable transactions that use smart contract rules.
Furthermore, blockchain allows CSPs more visibility into their subscribers’ roaming activities. This innovation significantly reduces fraudulent transactions and facilitates rapid payment reconciliation.
4. Blockchain can provide a more secured mobile phone environment
Mobile devices have always been targets for security attacks that compromise valuable digital assets and sensitive personal data. As more individuals and businesses rely on mobile phone use, attackers have become more creative in hacking bank details and corporate data.
Mobile phone companies can create a high level of device security by combining blockchain technology with secure enclaves, known as the “root of trust” (RoT). RoT contains private keys or cryptographic codes that can protect digital transactions. These keys act as a digital signature that validates the user’s identity during messaging, cryptocurrency, or other financial transactions.
5. Blockchain can streamline SLA automation
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a commitment between CSPs and subscribers that outlines the performance parameters that a network service needs to follow. However, there are times when the inefficient monitoring of SLAs results in disputes and service delays.
To prevent glitches in CSPs services, they have started to utilize smart contracts made within the blockchain network. These contracts offer specific conditions and transparent monitoring. They also allow the automation of payments and rebates without the hassle of completing paperwork.
6. Blockchain can make in-app purchases possible for everyone
A considerable percentage of the global population own a smartphone, but not everyone has the means to participate in transactions within the app. In-app purchases usually require credit card payments, a required method that is unavailable to many. Even if users have credit cards, the transactions involved are open to fraud, app store fees, and bank processing fees.
With blockchain technology, users can pay an app store using app coins. This method can eliminate credit card use, thus reducing costs and preventing fraud issues. Users can acquire app coins through a reward system facilitated by the developer. In turn, app developers would also receive a more significant share of the payment from in-app buyers.
Blockchain is the Future of the Mobile Phone Industry
Mobile phones are vital for business, communication, entertainment, and education. It has proven its worth in everyone’s daily life, and it seems like there’s no stopping its presence in the global landscape.
The emergence of blockchain can answer the problems hounding the mobile phone industry. This technology is built on strengthening security and transparency – crucial aspects that can protect the identity and livelihood of mobile phone users. Blockchain can also streamline several vital processes in the mobile industry, an innovation that can revitalize the industry and prepare it for the future.
