First Singapore mobile telco to use blockchain to automate business and payment/settlement processes
June 20 2021
Singapore consumers signing up for a Gorilla Telco mobile telco service will have to manage mobile data as a currency. It will convert subscribers’ unused mobile data each month into mobile currency called Gorilla Go Tokens.
The tokens are digital assets that can be used to offset future bills, shared with others or redeem mobile services. This novel offering is possible because of the Ethereum blockchain which runs Gorilla’s business systems.
The tokens stored in subscribers’ digital wallet do not expire. They are part of Switch25, Gorilla’s new pre-launch offering now available for customer sign-ups on its website.
“The blockchain engine acts like a switchboard that allows the Go tokens, which are stored on the blockchain, to act like a key, unlocking different services on the platform,” said Xanne Leo, founder and CEO of Gorilla Telco. Leo has over 16 years of financial industry experience including co-founding smart designation repository, Infinitus Token.
Elaborating further she said when the Go tokens are exchanged in a peer to peer transaction, they will not be reflected on the Ethereum-based blockchain system. Instead they will be layered and mirrored on a front-end synthetic token system.
This is necessary to protect users from the rapid changing of gas fees for Ethereum. All the gas costs, stressed Leo, will be absorbed on Gorilla’s backend blockchain system.
The tokens is a next generation stable 3.0 digital currency that is pegged to DAI Stablecoin.
Powering the backend, Gorilla will use technology from Kyber Network for instant integration and settlements, The Graph for data infrastructure, Compound Finance for asset-based collateralisation and Blocknative for connectivity and scalability.
Leo turned to blockchain to build a global mobile company that is universal and borderless free from volatility and risk and which will increase interoperability.
Through her involvement in previous startup, Infinitus, she access to blockchain technical teams. There are three teams, one each in Malaysia and Europe developing the backend systems while the third in Singapore is responsible for the Gorilla Telco mobile app and other applications.
Gorilla’s white paper states that it aims to enable consumers and businesses to access seamless worldwide mobile connectivity and enjoy micro mobile finance transactions with ease and at a low cost. It wants to amalgamate telecom, finance and payment onto one platform that is open-sourced, interoperable, decentralised and community-based.
Specifically, the telco sees immense gobal opportunity with the emergence of 5G especially industrial 5G. e-SIM technology embedded into Internet of Things and Machine to Machine devices will led to rising demand for mobile connectivity.
Gorilla Telco offers service-on-demand, the first mobile telco in Singapore to do so. Users can get services without a contract, subscription fees or activation charges. Users only pay for what they use. Its pre-launch offering, Switch25 costs S$25 a month for 20GB of mobile data, 100 minutes of talk time and 100 SMS. Other services like international digital telephony will be launched in coming months.
Competition in the Singapore mobile telco market is keen. There is already 150% mobile penetration in the island state. As the 13th telco, Gorilla Telco aims that its innovative offerings based on blockchain will be sufficient incentive to convert subscribers to its service.
A version of this story appeared in techgoondu.com
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