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The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) announced Tuesday that it has launched a new group of industry specifications for blockchain.
The news is a further confirmation that the telecommunications industry intends to exploit the cases of use of blockchain through its supply chains and its networks.
The ETSI industrial specification group on Distributed Ledgers permits (ISG PDL) will analyze and provide the basis for the operation of distributed registers to be deployed in various industrial sectors and government institutions.
ETSI has defined blockchain as increasing lists of records, called blocks, which are linked together with cryptography. By design, data from a blockchain can not be changed. It is a distributed open register that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and securely.
By creating virtual registers, companies and service providers are able to monitor and manage information between the various parties involved in a value chain. Blockchain, which was developed for bitcoin, is a digitized and distributed ledger that tracks transactions as statements of facts that can be used in a digital economy by companies, regulators, operators and consumers.
Distributed registries may be "unauthorized" (public) or "authorized" (private). While unlicensed registries are well known to the general public through bitcoins, authorized distributed registries are better suited to address more business-oriented use cases affecting industry and government institutions.
The founding members of the PDL group include Alastria, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Mineco, NEC, Telefónica and Vodafone. The new ETSI group will focus on challenges related to the operation of PDLs, business use cases, functional architecture and solutions for the operation of PDLs, including interfaces, APIs, protocols and data information models, as well as other topics.
The group's attention will be discussed during the kickoff meeting on January 24 at the Telefónica office in Madrid. Officers of the new group will be elected in that meeting.
Blockchain is warming up
Blockchain is a $ 1 billion opportunity for telecommunications companies, but they need to proactively assume the significant commitments needed to position themselves for such revenues, according to GlobalData's research.
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During the recent MEF18 conference in Los Angeles, there were several proof-of-concept blockchain demonstrations. During his opening speech at the MEF18, CTO Pascal Menezes of the MEF stated that the blockchain was in the MEF road map.
In 2015, the Linux Foundation announced the establishment of its open source umbrella organization Hyperledger, which included support from IBM, Intel and SAP. It remains to be seen whether Linux Foundation, MEF and ETSI will work together on blockchain tools, applications and services.
In September, AT & T announced that it was working with Microsoft and IBM on a suite of blockchain-based services designed to help its corporate customers reduce costs and accelerate automation processes.
BT, Colt, HGC Global, Telefónica and Telstra are involved in an experiment that uses blockchain for wholesale regulation, while Verizon is an investor in Filament, a blockchain company that could possibly help the carrier to manage the payment for drone delivery and monitoring services.
In August, CBCcom, PCCW Global, Sparkle, Tata Communications, Clear Blockchain Technologies and Cataworx announced a proof-of-concept blockchain.
