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Telecommunications conglomerate Verizon is eyeing the use of blockchain technology to underpin the dynamic creation of virtual SIM cards.

The company was granted a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the concept on Sept. 10, in which it sets out how it the invention could do away with pre-inserted, branded physical SIM cards.

The patent describes how a physical SIM card can be replaced by a software equivalent – a virtual SIM (vSIM) – that is secured with blockchain-based encryption.

A device on the mobile network would create a user account for storing one or more vSIMs and a selection of network services to be associated with the account.

The network device then creates a blockchain record including a vSIM certificate for the network services and an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) – a number that uniquely identifies all users of a cellphone network. The vSIM certificate is then linked to the user account and can be activated on a client’s mobile device.

Participating nodes on the “distributed consensus network” would maintain a list of records that Verizon calls a vSIM blockchain. This would be secured from malicious tampering by storing time-stamped transactions in cryptographically secured blocks.

Records on the vSIM blockchain would be stored in a hash tree structure for efficiency and to ensure that blocks are received “undamaged and unaltered,” according to the patent.

Notably, the vSIM can be assigned any of multiple mobile devices linked to the user account and transferred between the devices. It could also be temporarily assigned to other users, says Verizon.

Backing it all up would be a vSIM platform hosted by the mobile network provider that stores a user repository of vSIMs using a number of application programming interfaces (APIs).According to the patent:

“In one implementation, users can accept new vSIM certificates into a user account, transfer a vSIM among client devices associated with the user account, or deliver a vSIM certificate to another user.”

This would appear to suggest that, say, a company could purchase a number of vSIMs, assign them to its staff at will and later re-assign them to other employees using the system.

Verizon has previously backed a $15m funding round for Filament, a firm working on blockchain hardware for the internet of things.

Blockchain startup SpaceChain has won a 60,000 euro grant from the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate use-cases for their satellite-based blockchain wallet system.

Announced today by the company, the grant by the ESA’s “kick-start activities” fund bolsters SpaceChain’s efforts to put a hyper-secure, multi-signature, distributed satellite network in orbit. The company has already flight-tested blockchain nodes in space.

The tech uses a three signature system, with two ground-based signatures and a third in orbit, on the satellite. Each transaction requires at least two of the three signatures to complete.

Zee Zheng, SpaceChain’s co-founder and CEO, told CoinDesk that his satellite-based nodes are far more secure than terrestrial networks processing on the open internet with data and protocols uplinking directly to the satellite.

“We don’t need internet access to perform this kind of transaction,” Zheng said, “which eliminates a lot of potential risks for hacking.”“We are looking at a market that last year saw $1 billion in crypto stolen. That will be much much more difficult for hackers [on our system],” he added.

Zheng called his grant from the ESA an opportunity for the crypto community to learn more about blockchain space applications. He noted developers’ high interest in the security upside.

“We want to use this opportunity to showcase how space can benefit the blockchain space,” Zheng said. He added SpaceChain plans to launch three times over the next 18 months.

Blockchain can enable parties with no particular trust in each other to exchange digital data on a peer-to-peer basis with fewer or no third parties or intermediaries.

Data could correspond, for instance, to money, insurance policies, contracts, land titles, medical and educational records, birth and marriage certificates, buying and selling goods and services, or any transaction or asset that can be translated into a digital form.

The potential of blockchain to engender wide-ranging changes in the economy, industry and society – both now and tomorrow – is currently being explored across sectors and by a variety of organisations.

This report provides multidimensional insights into the state of blockchain technology by identifying ongoing and upcoming transformations in a range of sectors and setting out an anticipatory approach for further exploration.

Moving beyond the hype and debunking some of its controversies, we aim to offer both an in-depth and practical understanding of blockchain and its possible applications.

Download the Reports here:

blockchain_online.pdf 
blockchain_executive-summary_online.pdf 
kjna29813ene.epub 
kjnb29813ene.epub 

Authors: 


FIGUEIREDO DO NASCIMENTO SusanaROQUE MENDES POLVORA AlexandreANDERBERG AmandaANDONOVA ElenaBELLIA MarioCALÈS LudovicINAMORATO DOS SANTOS AndreiaKOUNELIS IoannisNAI FOVINO IgorPETRACCO GIUDICI MarcoPAPANAGIOTOU EvangeliaSOBOLEWSKI MaciejROSSETTI FiammettaSPIRITO LauraPublication Year: 2019Type:

• EUR - Scientific and Technical Research Reports

Science Areas:

• Innovation and growth
• Information Society
• Environment and climate change
• Safety and security
• Agriculture and food security
• Economic and Monetary Union
• Energy and transport
• Health and consumer protection
• Standards

Publisher: Publications Office of the European UnionISBN: 978-92-76-08977-3 (online)ISSN: 1831-9424 (online)DOI: 10.2760/901029 (online)

Citation: 


Anderberg, A., Andonova, E., Bellia, M., Calès, L., Inamorato Dos Santos, A., Kounelis, I., Nai Fovino, I., Petracco Giudici, M., Papanagiotou, E., Sobolewski, M., Rossetti, F. and Spirito, L., Blockchain Now And Tomorrow, Figueiredo Do Nascimento, S. and Roque Mendes Polvora, A. editor(s), EUR 29813 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-08977-3 (online),978-92-76-08975-9 (print),978-92-76-08976-6 (ePub), doi:10.2760/901029 (online),10.2760/29919 (print),10.2760/300420 (ePub), JRC117255.Other Identifiers: 

29813 ENKJ-NA-29813-EN-N (online)KJ-NA-29813-EN-C (print)KJ-NA-29813-EN-E (ePub)

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