This is a press release.
Yury MorozovHere is an interview with Yury Morozov, founder and CEO of BubbleTone, the first blockchain dedicated to the telecommunications sector. Mr. Morozov has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, with many entrepreneurial success stories. For 16 years, he was Chairman of the Board of CountryCom. He recently founded BubbleTone, with the goal of revolutionizing homelessness within the telecommunications ecosystem.
Can you introduce BubbleTone in a few words?
Y. MOROZOV: BubbleTone is creating the world's first decentralized telecom-enabled system to allow users and mobile network providers to interact securely and directly. The basic idea behind this project is to develop a global telecommunications platform, through which users will be able to purchase services through their SIM card wherever they are in the world. We want to end international data roaming, which is inefficient and costly for both users and providers.
The ability to keep your SIM card and remove roaming charges seems like an attractive idea. But how can the system help ensure that all this works properly?
Y. MOROZOV: Our platform is being developed to make this experience invisible to consumers. They only need to download an application and register. It will be able to easily check the digital identity of the user through the database of their operator, through standardized and secure procedures.
Users will be able to choose the voice and data plan they need from a provider in the country they are going to visit. They will be able to buy this contract thanks to tokens, crypto-currencies or fiduciary currencies.
As soon as the user has paid for this service, a smart contract based on blockchain technology will be generated. The information of the foreign service provider will thus be transferred in the form of "crypto-keys" to the user's SIM card, by offering him the possibility to call and access the internet directly through this local operator, when will be abroad.
This means that users will be able to access the fastest LTE standard and avoid network problems that are too slow, as they are connected directly to a local network.
I can understand why travelers would be interested in buying local services of this type. But is this type of transaction really secure for users?
Y. MOZOROV: Our technology allows us to guarantee that the data will never be transferred anywhere, since it must be validated on the blockchain by the mobile operators who are located in the destination country of the user. The smart contract also ensures that the fees that will be charged by the provider will only be paid after the contract is completed, which provides protection to the user.
It seems that this platform is likely to solve many problems faced by users who rely on data roaming. But what aspects of BubbleTone do you think will make the solution attractive to service providers?
Y. MOROZOV: Our platform eliminates the barriers to entry that suppliers face. Operators, whether large or small, can easily join our platform in any market. Even small players are being offered the opportunity to increase their subscriber base and enjoy a new revenue channel through our ecosystem.
Our telecom partners will also be able to use our platform, which is based on graphene, and whose source code is already available on GitHub.
After creating an account on the BubbleTone platform, mobile operators will be able to use our smart contracts templates to quickly publish their offers on the blockchain - offers that will be available to all users of the application.
This means that service providers will be able to securely attract users identified on their network through a smart contract that has been agreed upon and can be applied. The arrival of smart contracts based on blockchain technology will also eliminate the problem of the lack of payment for services that have been rendered, an element that is a recurring problem in this sector.
How do you think blockchain technology could revolutionize the telecom sector?
Y. MOROZOV: The sector is going to be totally upset. From an infrastructure perspective, mobile data roaming is inefficient and outdated. It is both complicated and expensive for operators who want to implement it. And, more importantly, it involves prohibitive costs for users - only 7% of the world's population can afford roaming charges that are billed by their local operators.
BubbleTone, for its part, is a global project, and no regional restrictions will apply.
You seem to want to change the world. Could you tell us a bit more about your company's goals in this area?
Y. MOROZOV: We want to democratize the telecom industry in a global way, and we are convinced that we will achieve this by bringing small and medium-sized operators back to the heart of the ecosystem.
Developing countries have been hit hardest by what I call a "split in homelessness". Local operators are thus billed for higher costs than other operators by the main actors of the ecosystem, insofar as these markets are not perceived as capable of constituting a source of significant profits.
As a medium-sized operator, we are fully aware of these issues, and we want to create a platform that can also meet the needs of smaller operators.
Thanks to the blockchain platform that BubbleTone is developing, mobile operators and users can be directly connected. During their travels, they will be able to benefit from local prices. Operators will be able to increase their user base without additional investment, while users will benefit from high quality mobile services at extremely advantageous rates.
What other BubbleTone services could potentially offer?
Y. MOROZOV: We want to offer a wider use of blockchain technology in the telecom world. For example, to ensure a secure and convenient authentication system on the BubbleTone blockchain, we will implement innovative solutions for digital identity management.
And any online service, such as digital music services or cloud storage, can be sold worldwide on the BubbleTone blockchain by service providers to mobile phone users.
You are currently entering the final stages of your ICO. What will be next for your company?
Y. MOROZOV: We are currently working on an update of the BubbleTone messenger, which will soon be linked to our blockchain platform. We are also putting in place tools that allow users to vote.
In addition, we will present the integration of our application to our blockchain at the Mobile World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona at the end of February 2018.
You have decided to partner with ICOBox to help you launch the ICO Universal Mobile Token (UMT). How did this happen?
Y. MOROZOV: ICOBox's "SaaS" solution has made the preparations for our ICO much faster and much simpler. They managed to help us launch this project thanks to their technical, legal and marketing expertise.
The BubbleTone website is accessible at this address: https://bubbletone.io/