Vodafone using sim card tech for blockchain-based digital wallets on mobile phones | Future Focus
On this week's episode of Yahoo Finance Future Focus, our host Brian McGleenon delves into the world of blockchain technology with Vodafone Blockchain Lead and PairPoint CPO David Palmer. Palmer shed light on Vodafone's approach to integrating blockchain with mobile phone technology, specifically through the utilisation of sim cards. He began by highlighting the sheer scale of mobile phone usage, with an expected 8 billion devices in operation by 2023, and then emphasised the pivotal role of mobile phones as the primary gateway to digital applications and commerce, underscoring the importance of leveraging sim card technology for blockchain integration. The discussion turned to the forecasted mass adoption of blockchain-based digital wallets on mobile phones, with Palmer forcasting a surge to 5.6 billion wallets by 2030. The episode delved into Vodafone's PairPoint Digital Asset Broker (DAB) platform, providing insights into how the platform facilitates seamless transactions across public blockchains like Ethereum, as well as private ones, and how it empowers IoT devices with decentralised digital identities.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Big businesses are starting to use blockchain.
00:05 And today we're going to be finding out
00:07 what Vodafone is doing with this innovative technology.
00:10 Now today in the studio, we are joined by
00:12 CPO of PowerPoint and Vodafone blockchain lead, David Palmer.
00:16 David, welcome to Yahoo Finance Future Focus.
00:19 - Nice to be here, Brian.
00:20 - Now David, how is Vodafone linking
00:22 mobile phones with blockchain?
00:24 - Good question.
00:25 I think if we look at trends,
00:27 by 2030 we're expecting over 8 billion mobile phones
00:31 to be in operation.
00:32 Many of those being smartphones.
00:36 And the mobile phone is the touchpoint between people
00:39 and accessing applications, doing business.
00:42 And essentially in those mobile phones are SIM cards.
00:46 So we focused on linking the SIM card to digital identity,
00:51 linking the SIM card to blockchains,
00:54 and using the cryptography we have in those SIM cards
00:57 for that integration.
00:58 - Are we going to be anticipating
01:00 like lots of digital wallets on mobile phones in the future?
01:04 - Yeah, so by 2030, we're expecting there to be
01:06 5.6 billion digital wallets.
01:10 The digital wallets will be the gateway between people
01:14 and financial services,
01:16 also holding identity and other credentials.
01:19 And we think linking that wallet to the SIM card,
01:22 which has the hardware needed.
01:25 So for example, hardware secure modules,
01:28 public private key encryption, symmetric key encryption,
01:31 and linking to identity is absolutely critical.
01:35 Because of course, the wallets, as they expand
01:38 and hold identity and financial credentials
01:41 will be a target for hackers and others.
01:46 - So is this, are we going to expect this
01:48 to be using public blockchains such as Ethereum
01:50 or Avalanche and things like that?
01:52 - Both.
01:53 So long term, the pathway I believe
01:58 is towards public blockchains.
02:00 And I think with the layer twos
02:03 and things like the Ethereum fork,
02:05 we're starting to see the public blockchains
02:08 are becoming faster, they're becoming more secure.
02:11 However, we do know that financial services,
02:14 there are some regulations which prevent them
02:16 from using public blockchains
02:18 or writing to public blockchains because of sanctions
02:20 and other things that gas fees could lead to them breaking.
02:25 So we at PeerPoint act as the middleware.
02:31 So for example, if a big enterprise wants to write
02:35 to a public blockchain, they can link to our chain.
02:39 We will then log it and then we can execute
02:42 a smart contract which will also utilize
02:44 the private blockchain using things like account abstraction
02:47 and cryptography to essentially remove that.
02:52 - Oh, so account abstraction, what is that?
02:54 That means it's just basically easier to use these things?
02:57 - Easier to use and interoperability.
02:59 So for example, where you use account abstraction,
03:04 it will allow you to move beyond an Ethereum address
03:07 to use other addresses, other types of locations
03:11 and accounts.
03:12 It also gives rise to the possibility of interoperability.
03:17 So we're using account abstraction, for example,
03:20 with tokenized deposits, for example,
03:24 of some banks and card companies.
03:26 So essentially you can bridge between a blockchain
03:29 and a bank deposit or you can bridge between a blockchain
03:32 and fintech APIs.
03:36 So I think there's a lot of power.
03:39 At the moment you've got blockchain and you've got DeFi
03:42 and you've got TradFi.
03:44 Power is in convergence, right?
03:46 How do you link fintech open banking APIs with blockchain?
03:50 How do you give a user access to all of these seamlessly
03:54 in a seamless user experience?
03:58 And the wallet and things like account abstraction
04:00 are key to bridging that.
04:02 - So if we're looking at all of these different things,
04:04 there's one thing that I suppose that we've sort of left out
04:06 and that's the metaverse.
04:07 Is there any way that this connects with that?
04:09 Or do you think the metaverse is dead and gone?
04:12 - No, I think the metaverse is very much alive,
04:14 but I also believe that the metaverse is AI on Earth.
04:17 So there's a lot of talk about 300 million jobs
04:22 being lost to AI.
04:24 There's also on the other hand a lot of discussion
04:26 about a lot of jobs being created by AI.
04:29 In fact, there's talk that AI is gonna do computers,
04:32 it's gonna do computer coding,
04:34 it's gonna do video making, et cetera.
04:36 But there's a lot of opportunities.
04:38 And the metaverse is how we will interact with AI.
04:41 - Are you guys looking into this at Vodafone
04:43 or at PowerPoint?
04:44 Are you personally looking into this?
04:45 - So I've written a book,
04:47 which is called "The Business of the Metaverse,
04:50 Opportunities for Web 3 and AI."
04:52 And that comes out in Europe on the 3rd of June
04:57 and the 25th of June in the US.
05:00 - Okay, well here, David, thanks very much
05:01 for coming on Yahoo Finance Future Focus.
05:04 - Thank you.
05:05 (upbeat music)