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T-Mobile owner will be mining Bitcoin in addition to web3 efforts to stop SIM swaps

By Daniel Petrov

Published: Jun 18, 2024, 7:29 AM

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Near the height of the previous blockchain craze, T-Mobile and its parent company Deutsche Telecom launched a competition over the best Public Blockchain Protocol solutions for web3.

The six award-winners were to give solutions how to "leverage the power of 5G to bring Web3 to life, with 5G playing a significant role in how users stay connected to these innovations," and split $100,000 each.

T-Mobile's web3 efforts brought along some neat suggestions for how to decentralize carrier subscriber identification with blockchain tools to avoid the proliferation of the so-called SIM swap or port-out fraud that included the emptying of people's crypto wallets. Now, Deutsche Telecom, T-Mobile's owner, announced that it will begin actively mining Bitcoin.

While saying that T-Mobile has been running Bitcoin and Lightning network nodes for a good while now, Dirk Röder, the head of web3 infrastructure and solutions at T-Mobile, also added that "we will engage in digital monetary photosynthesis soon." Asked what does that mean, he then confirmed that T-Mobile will start Bitcoin mining.

T-Mobile Deutsche Telekom are running Bitcoin nodes, Lightning nodes and will start mining #bitcoin

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE. pic.twitter.com/r7rihAinXt
— Daniel Sempere Pico (@BTCGandalf) June 14, 2024

While having a multibillion industry giant on their side is certain to please the cryptocurrency community as a whole, smaller and independent Bitcoin miners might be a bit miffed that the big guys are encroaching on their turf, even under the guise of adopting and popularizing blockchain technologies.

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.