Turkish digital operator Turkcell unveils blockchain-based ID Management solution

Turkish digital operator Turkcell has introduced its blockchain service for ID Management at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019.

Turkcell, a member of the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG) and the Hyperledger consortium, said that it has successfully expanded the utilization of blockchain services to the telecommunications industry with roaming clearance, ID management and donation solutions.

“[U]sing blockchain technology is essential to improve customer experience of our digital services and solutions, which remains as top priority in the design of our services,” Turkcell Customer Experience and Information Technologies Executive Vice President Serkan Ozturk.

“Our blockchain solutions provide secure digital payments, barter systems, identity verification and IoT applications. These efforts will help us improve our digital services and raise the bar in customer experience.”

Existing ID Management solutions have a number of shortcomings – users are required to either create different accounts for different platforms, which requires them to remember details of each account created, or to share personal data with a third party not involved in the login process.

Turkcell’s blockchain solution will help to overcome these challenges by giving the user control over personal data and ensuring personal privacy with GDPR compliant ID Management solution. According to the official release:

“ID Management solution stores the information required for verification of users in the blockchain network and removes additional identity verifications – this also enables Turkcell to provide new use-cases to enterprises.”

Turkcell said that it currently shares its blockchain network with Lifecell and Lifecell’s Belarus-based telecom operator partner BeST, and is in talks with study groups and other telecom operators to further expand the network.

The company further said that its blockchain-enabled donation use-case incorporates ID Management solution to verify the donation eligibility of people in need. It allows customers to donate via the communication and life platform BiP and use Paycell as a payment medium.