Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica is partnering with decentralized oracle provider Chainlink to combat SIM swapping. The companies plan to develop tools that will help blockchain developers protect themselves from hackers authorizing transactions using compromised SIM cards.
As part of the partnership, Telefonica will use Chainlink’s Chainlink Functions solution to securely connect GSMA Open Gateway APIs to the Polygon network. GSMA Open Gateway is an API platform that allows developers to access the networks of mobile operators that are members of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA).
The initial implementation will leverage Chainlink’s capabilities in combination with the GSMA Open Gateway’s SIM SWAP API to provide additional security for blockchain transactions and allow smart contracts to query whether unauthorized changes have been made to a device’s SIM card. This ultimately means that the smart contract will refuse to process transactions if it receives a response from the API indicating that the SIM card has been swapped.
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