Recent reports suggest that Vodafone is following in the footsteps of other companies, such as Solanamobile, by integrating crypto wallets into mobile SIM cards. The move is being led by their Indian subsidiary, Vodafone Idea, which is seeking $3 billion in debt to fund the initial initiative in India.
Vodafone is a multinational telecommunications conglomerate that operates in several countries and has a vast customer base of over a quarter of a billion mobile users globally.
More specifically, the company has 342.3 million users in India, 33 million users in Germany, 111 million users in South Africa, 19 million users in the UK, 14 million users in Spain, and 19 million users in Italy. With the rise of mobile phone usage, there is a growing demand for reliable and secure digital identity verification solutions.
Therefore, the firm has focused on linking the SIM card to digital identity and blockchains and integrating them using cryptography.
According to David Palmer, Vodafone’s Blockchain Lead, the company is expecting more than 20 billion mobile phones to be in operation by 2030, many of which are smartphones.
Palmer elaborated on the figures he presented, stating that he expected there to be some eight billion smartphones in use by 2030 and predicting a surge in crypto wallets to 5.6 billion in the same time frame — enough to account for nearly 70 percent of all people on Earth.
Vodafone Partnership With Microsoft
The firm’s move towards integrating crypto wallets into its mobile SIM cards could be a significant milestone in the blockchain and telecommunications industries.
Despite the financial difficulties of its Indian subsidiary, the company Idea recently sold off shares worth $2.2 billion ahead of a debt-raising plan worth a reported $3 billion.
However, the group has been making strides in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology. In a recent announcement, the company revealed a 10-year strategic partnership with Microsoft that aims to bring generative AI services to Vodafone’s customers.
It is noteworthy that this isn’t the first time a company is working to combine cell phone technology with blockchain hardware. In 2019, a US-based startup, VaultTel, announced its ambitions to create a physical wallet that could be slotted into a smartphone’s SIM slot, thus allowing users to keep their cryptocurrency secure.
