A subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom called T-Systems has become a Chainlink (LINK) node operator.
Deutsche Telekom is one of Germany’s leading companies, employing over 200,000 people and has a market capitalization of $80 billion. The fact that one of its subsidiaries is to become a provider of decentralized data feeds that are rewarded in cryptocurrency is significant. T-Systems’ announcement calls this arrangement "generalized mining":
“By providing real-world data to the Chainlink network, T-Systems MMS engages in a so-called ‘generalized mining’, where it provides an IT service to a blockchain network while getting paid in digital assets for reliably doing so. As there is a significant value locked in DeFi, such IT services play an important role in the overall Ethereum ecosystem.”
T-Systems is in the business of digital transformations of large corporations and medium sized companies. The company employs more than 2,000 people and had a turnover of 176 million euros in 2019.
Roaming may be explored in the future
Gleb Dudka, Analyst at T-Systems MMS told Cointelegraph that the company believes it is responsible for supporting public network infrastructure:
“You could even say duty as a telecom company to be a public blockchain network infrastructure provider.”
Although initially T-Systems will be just a node operator, telecom-specific use cases for blockchain tech — such as roaming settlement — are being considered, according to Dudka.