Deutsche Telekom, a massive telecom firm based in Germany, is the first to run a validator within the NEAR Protocol.
In an effort to promote network security and decentralization, Deutsche Telekom AG, the fifth-largest telecom provider globally in terms of revenue, is joining the NEAR ecosystem’s Enterprise Node Operators program.
As part of the institutional orientation of the NEAR ecosystem, Deutsche Telekom stated in a press release on November 11 that it will have a “key role” in the blockchain’s functioning as a validator.
The partnership is “promising and innovative,” according to Oliver Nyderle, head of digital trust & web3 infrastructure at Deutsche Telekom, who also noted that the network shares the company’s stance “towards greater data sovereignty and user data control for the benefit of the users.”
According to the German telecom behemoth, the partnership with NEAR broadens its “staking portfolio” to encompass a network in the area of “decentralized AI and scalability.”
The extent of Deutsche Telekom’s participation as the network’s validator was not disclosed. The minimum stake needed to become a block-producing validator on the NEAR Protocol frequently refers to the “seat price,” determined by the validators’ 100th highest proposal.
According to the network documentation, the absolute minimum threshold is set at 67,000 (about $383,000 at the going rate). and it fluctuates dynamically depending on validator participation. The price of NEAR increased 9.5% after the revelation, reaching $5.6.
The partnership was announced just days after Bankhaus Metzler, Germany’s second-oldest bank, and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary MMS began a trial project to investigate the use of excess renewable energy for Bitcoin mining to collect field data that would aid in stabilizing Germany’s energy grid.
