To fight fraud, Telefónica and Chainlink plan to leverage Chainlink Features, a Web3 developer resolution, to attach Telefónica’s OpenGateway APIs with the GSMA Open Gateway.
Telefónica, a world telecom large primarily based in Spain, has secured a strategic partnership with Chainlink, a decentralized oracle community, to boost safety and performance within the Web3 ecosystem.
In accordance with an official announcement on Thursday, the collaboration seeks to combine real-world telecommunications capabilities into blockchain networks, making certain heightened safety for good contracts and Web3 purposes.
Combating SIM Swap Assaults
One of many key targets of the partnership is to fight fraudulent actions, significantly SIM SWAP assaults. These assaults contain cybercriminals deceiving a mobile service supplier into transferring a sufferer’s service to a SIM card beneath their management, successfully hijacking the sufferer’s cellphone quantity.
SIM swap assaults have been utilized by cybercriminals to siphon hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the crypto business, with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealing that hackers stole roughly $72 million in SIM swap assaults in 2022. To fight fraud, Telefónica and Chainlink plan to leverage Chainlink Features, a Web3 developer resolution, to attach Telefónica’s OpenGateway APIs with the GSMA Open Gateway.
The GSMA Open Gateway is an initiative by the International System for Cellular Communications Affiliation, of which Telefónica is a member. It offers APIs for builders and empowers companies to handle varied challenges throughout the Web3 area, together with fraud prevention and safe account creation.
Chainlink Features permits customers to retrieve information from a variety of real-world APIs, together with public, password-protected, IoT gadgets, and enterprise programs. The platform additionally permits builders to run customized computations on the info utilizing Chainlink’s community earlier than delivering the outcomes again to good contracts.
The unification of each platforms goals to stop fraud and allow safe account administration for customers.
A Step In the direction of a Safe Web3 Ecosystem
Commenting on the partnership, Johann Eid, the Chief Enterprise Officer at Chainlink Labs, mentioned the combination of Telefónica’s OpenGateway APIs into the decentralized oracle community will open the door for heightened safety within the business.
“Bringing Telefónica’s OpenGateway APIs on-chain with Chainlink Features unlocks novel use circumstances and better safety for our business that in the end higher shield customers and their belongings. We’re excited to convey Chainlink and main telecoms like Telefónica collectively to additional the imaginative and prescient of a verifiable internet the place customers stay in management,” he mentioned.
Telefónica plans to introduce the SIM SWAP API in Brazil by its subsidiary Vivo. The API is designed to confirm any unauthorized adjustments to a SIM card linked with a cell quantity, successfully thwarting potential assaults. In accordance with the announcement, the transfer marks the primary utility of the GSMA Open Gateway SIM Swap API.
“Telefónica is delighted to strengthen our relationship with business chief Chainlink and to current the primary use case of the GSMA Open Gateway SIM Swap API, which positions us as a Web3 enabler and can permit us to accompany builders in direction of the net of the long run,” mentioned Yaiza Rubio, a senior government at Telefónica.
Each Telefónica and Chainlink will probably be current on the Cellular World Congress (MWC) to be held in Barcelona from twenty sixth to twenty ninth February.