Yesterday, Deutsche Telekom unit T-Systems announced a partnership with state-owned development agency Malta Enterprise for its blockchain marketplace. Under the agreement, Maltese firms exploring blockchain can utilize the German Blockchain Ecosystem (GBE) for the development of applications.
Malta Enterprise is a government agency tasked with attracting foreign investments and development of the local economy. Last year, the country’s parliament passed three bills into law, making it the first country in Europe to implement a regulatory framework for blockchain and cryptocurrency. Forbes also quoted Malta as “the world’s first blockchain island” owing to its blockchain conducive regulatory environment.
“This collaboration with T-Systems will give a further competitive advantage over other jurisdictions while adding more value to the already established Blockchain ecosystem,” said Kurt Farrugia, CEO of Malta Enterprise.
He further added: “Companies using T-System’s GBE services will have a certification for their project by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority. The relationship with T-Systems will continue to build Malta’s reputation as a solid Blockchain jurisdiction.”
T-Systems recently launched GBE to allow companies to create their own blockchain applications. GBE is fully managed by T-Systems and supports all the “usual” distributed ledger technology (DLT) protocols.
In the case of Malta enterprise, the collaboration will provide businesses with a blockchain platform as part of the planned Malta Innovation Hub with support for the Ethereum, Hyperledger, and Corda DLT platforms. Another aspect is the provision of a validator service, allowing Maltese companies to deploy validator nodes for Proof of Stake (public) blockchain projects.
Apart from this, the partnership also involves access to T-Systems’ security solutions, marketing and training activities and support for solution audits recently announced by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority.
Last year, Binance said it would launch a decentralized bank in Malta which will be owned by digital coin investors.
Deutsche Telekom is no stranger to blockchain. It was one of the first five companies to sign up to the governing council of the public distributed ledger Hedera Hashgraph. The company is also working with Japan’s SK Telecom on a digital identity project.
Another subsidiary T-Labs is a member of the Convergence Alliance working on combining AI, Big Data, blockchain and IoT.
Meanwhile, an initiative similar to GBE is active in Switzerland, where Swiss Post and Swisscom have developed a private blockchain infrastructure.
