decrypt.co
Since the heady days of the ICO boom and bust in 2017, blockchain technology has struggled to attract widespread interest from the mainstream business world.
But Deutsche Telekom—Europe's largest telecoms provider in terms of revenue—is changing that narrative.
The German business giant, which also owns T-Mobile in the U.S., has announced that it's now serving as a validator on Polygon. Multimedia Solutions GmbH (MMS)—a subsidiary that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses with their digital transformation—is leading the initiative.
And Polygon isn't the first blockchain that MMS has embraced. Since 2021, it has also announced support for Ethereum, Chainlink, Q, Celo, and Flow.
This latest collaboration means Deutsche Telekom MMS will provide staking and validation services for Polygon's proof-of-stake network, which serves as a Layer 2 scaling platform for Ethereum.
The company says it will be focused on securing Polygon's sidechain and Supernets app-chains—contributing to security, governance, and decentralization.
Dirk Röder, who heads the Blockchain Solutions Center for Deutsche Telekom, praised Polygon for being "developer-friendly and resource-efficient" in a news release.
"The collaboration with Polygon is an important step for Deutsche Telekom MMS to fully exploit the potential of blockchain technology and enable applications suitable for mass deployment," he added.
Polygon Labs' chief operating officer Michael Blank was equally enthused—and said he hopes this will allow more businesses to utilize blockchain technology, while enabling consumers to unlock "the ownership and autonomy that Web3 technology offers."
Tens of thousands of decentralized applications already exist on Polygon's PoS chain, the news release adds—resulting in over three million daily transactions.
While blockchain technology has struggled to match the breakneck growth seen in the artificial intelligence world, Polygon has done a better job than most in attracting big names.
Polygon was named Decrypt's crypto project of the year in 2022 after wooing the likes of Starbucks, Instagram and Reddit.