Deutsche Telekom makes blockchain simple for business customers

From 2020 onwards, Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems will be offering its business customers a German Blockchain Ecosystem (GBE). The Group is set to present this new product at this year's Digital X in Cologne on October 29 and 30. With this innovation, T-Systems will provide companies with a platform for blockchain networks. This makes T-Systems the first European digital service provider to launch a Blockchain as a Service marketplace. The new marketplace will enable customers to map different applications using blockchain.

The service will allow businesses to map a product's entire value chain, from raw materials to delivery, using blockchain. Every step of the company's supply chain will thus be visible digitally. As a result, businesses will be able to make their operations faster, more cost-effective and more transparent than ever before. They will also be able to trade, manage and invoice goods and services directly. Detours via countless service providers will become a thing of the past.

The advantage for business: Blockchain knits together otherwise separate systems for production, services, trade and payment. This significantly reduces fragmentation along the value chain.

The first product on the marketplace will be the Validator as a Service solution. This allows cross-company processes to be reliably and securely checked and processed via a blockchain infrastructure. And it's not just corporate customers that will reap the benefits. Blockchain can also optimize business applications in SMEs.

The German Blockchain Ecosystem is a globally operated solution developed in Germany. It supports all the usual Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) protocols, on which blockchain is also based. Distributed ledger is a term for a decentralized database. It provides all network participations with a common write and read authorization. With blockchain, each process generates data that is securely written into a chain of blocks. Network participants, so-called validators, check all the data and store it decentrally. This makes them the cornerstone of any blockchain network.

The most important requirement for any blockchain application is a secure and decentralized infrastructure. However, most companies and consortia lack their own infrastructure. Or they don't have access to it. T-Systems operates the entire infrastructure securely from Germany. That is to say, a comprehensive blockchain service "made in Germany". The German Blockchain Ecosystem integrates all major cloud providers including the Open Telekom Cloud. This crucial component has not been available as a service until now. But that is precisely the gap that the German Blockchain Ecosystem closes. But also the customer's own infrastructure and the Internet of Things.

T-Systems CEO Adel Al Saleh appeals to companies to come forward with their plans for blockchain. "The initial hype around blockchain has blown over. Today, no one doubts that this technology can open up new, decentralized business models," says Al Saleh. "Please actively come forward with your application ideas for this important technological development! Together we can pave the way for the Internet of Values. And best of all, companies no longer have to rely on central platform providers of major marketplaces. On the contrary! Our German Blockchain Ecosystem provides support to companies who want to manage their business models decentrally."

The worlds of politics, associations and science have all confirmed that blockchain takes the internet to a new level. It expands the Internet of Information and the Internet of Things to include the Internet of Values. In future, thanks to the distributed ledger, it will be possible to manage real assets from anywhere around the globe. Based on the distributed ledger system, it can manage real values anywhere in the world. The assets in question could be land, shares, patents or contracts of any kind. Even works of art, health data, passport information, money transactions or supply chains. The possibilities are almost unlimited.

The Group has pooled its skills to develop the German Blockchain Ecosystem T-Systems, T-Labs, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions and Detecon are working together in a joint research and development team.