T-Mobile Parent Company Launches Ethereum Staking Validator

Deutsche Telekom (DT), the parent company of wireless network operator T-Mobile, has announced that its subsidiary T-Systems MMS will support the Ethereum blockchain network by infrastructure in the form of validator nodes.  

In a press release, the German tech giant revealed that T-Systems will also provide liquid Ether (ETH) staking services through a partnership with ETH staking service provider StakeWise. 

This partnership will see the DT subsidiary participate in the governance of the decentralized application (dApp) as it has joined the StakeWise decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

According to DT, the move is intended to cement the company’s presence in the blockchain space while contributing to the transparency of the second largest blockchain network. 

The move is also to show support for the Ethereum network’s transition to using a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. T-Systems MMS already maintains other “sustainable blockchain networks” such as Flow, Celo, and Polkadot. 

“After collaborating with Flow, Celo, and Polkadot, we are now taking the next decisive step in the blockchain world and are doing pioneering work here with Ethereum. As a node operator, our entry into liquid staking and the close collaboration with a DAO is a novelty for Deutsche Telekom”, said Dirk Röder, Head of Blockchain Solutions Center at T-Systems MMS. 

T-Systems MMS is not the only front on which DT is gaining greater footing in the blockchain space. In September, T-Mobile signed a five-year partnership with Helium Network to allow the blockchain-based decentralized wireless service provider to provide its users 5G network with T-Mobile’s infrastructure. 

Analysts expect more institutional adoption of ETH and the Ethereum blockchain

In a statement, Kirill Kutakov, the co-founder of StakeWise, noted that he expects strong demand and capital flows in the Ethereum network.  He added that the partnership with T-Systems is making the Ethereum ecosystem safer. 
 

“With the move to Proof-of-Stake, we expect strong demand and significantly increasing capital flows in the Ethereum network. We are therefore pleased that T-Systems MMS, as an infrastructure provider, is giving our protocol more reliability and making the Ethereum ecosystem safer overall,” Kutakov remarked. 

His remark echoes the long-held expectation of blockchain industry commentators who have long predicted that the Merge will spark a  new wave of investment from institutions. Bloomberg analysts note that the slashing of the energy usage along with scalability upgrades that will follow are likely to improve the value proposition of the Ethereum blockchain for institutions.