Telos’ partnership with Blockbastards will see the network host the company’s upcoming Qudo platform, along with providing marketing and technical support.
The second most active blockchain, Telos, has announced partnerships with three gaming companies on April 28, bringing blockchain features to games on the Unity and Steam platforms.
Qudo is a token-based reward mechanism revolving around proof-of-gameplay that can be integrated into any game built using the Unity platform. Users can be rewarded for achieving certain goals, or simply for racking up hours of play.
According to Unity’s own figures, over 3.3 billion devices have run games built on the platform in the past year, so Qudo could potentially see a massive audience exposed to cryptocurrency rewards.
The platform allows developers to focus on the gameplay experience, adding cryptocurrency rewards without a need for prior blockchain experience. According to Blockbastards managing director João Abrantes:
“In traditional gaming, we’ve seen that in-game credit systems tend to make the most money, and now we can offer this same experience on-chain with Qudo, running on the Telos network.”
Farm Game and Area X add a competitive element
The other two partnerships announced by Telos are with Farm Game and Area X.
The Farm Game platform enables betting on games such as Counter Strike, DOTA 2 and others on the Steam service. Sponsors can also create competition matches online by offering Telos (TLOS) tokens as prizes.
As of 2019, the Steam platform supported over 34,000 games and over 95 million monthly active users.
Area X is a social network of free HTML 5 games, built on the Telos blockchain and awarding prizes in TLOS and other tokens. Area X also holds tournaments whereby players pay a small entry fee in the hope of winning more tokens.
Telos Foundation CEO Suvi Rinkinen expressed the company’s desire to support the development of blockchain-based games, stating, “There are numerous benefits to integrating blockchain technology into games, and we look forward to working with Qudo, Area X, and Farm Game to ensure Telos helps them maximize their performance.”
However, Telos isn’t purely gaming-focused. As Cointelegraph reported, the company recently teamed up with Genobank to launch an app helping people to access anonymous COVID-19 testing.
Telecom Giant Telefonica Pilots Blockchain Access on 8,000 Spanish Firms
Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica has reportedly partnered with the local Association of Science and Technology Parks (APTE) to grant access to its blockchain to about 8,000 firms in Spain.
According to a report published by telecom news outlet TotalTele on Jan. 9, Telefonica will deploy nodes of its Hyperledger-based blockchain at APTE’s 52 sites.
During the three-month-long testing period, firms will be encouraged to develop applications on the network and allowed to experiment with their own tokens. Telefonica partnered with IT giant IBM in November 2018 to apply blockchain technology to managing international mobile phone call traffic.
A project backed by notable partners
In April last year, Telefonica leveraged its relationship with IBM to launch its Cloud Garden service. This service is meant to simplify adoption of emerging technologies, including blockchain, as well as AI and big data.
The blockchain deployed in partnership with APTE leverages the Cloud Garden service. CEO of Telefonica Spain Maria Jesus Almazor claimed that the project will bring significant benefits to firms housed at Spain’s science and technology parks:
“Companies housed in these scientific and technological parks will be able to benefit from the advantages of blockchain technology without having to face the inherent complexity of it, or have to dedicate resources to acquire the knowledge necessary to make the most of it.”
According to APTE’s official website, a science and technology park is a project generally associated with a physical space dealing with educational institutions and research centers promoting knowledge creation. Such parks also have a stable managing body that encourages innovation and technology exchange between companies and organizations participating in its function.
Company information website Crunchbase estimates Telefonica’s annual revenue to be about $54.1 billion. Furthermore, the website also reports that the telecom giant also invested $5 million in the seed funding round of blockchain data verification platform Zamna. In February, a Microsoft press release also announced a partnership with Telefonica aiming to develop blockchain and artificial intelligence innovation.
Telecom giants’ investments in blockchain
Investments in blockchain technology are becoming increasingly common amongst telecommunications giant. As Cointelegraph reported in November 2019, Malta Enterprise, the Maltese government agency supporting business development, signed a memorandum of understanding with Blockchain-as-a-Service service firm T-Systems.
In September last year, also Union Mobile, the fourth-largest mobile carrier in South Korea, announced the launch of its blockchain project called ELYNET. Trying to motivate firms in the space to further adopt the technology, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance also published a collection of use cases for blockchain in telecommunications in August last year.
