British telco giant Vodafone has reportedly plans to auction the world’s first Short Message Service (SMS) in the form of a nonfungible token (NFT) on Dec. 21. The SMS, that reads “Merry Christmas”, was sent 29 years ago over the Vodafone network on Dec 3, 1992, and was received by Richard Jarvis, an employee at the time. The historic 15 character-long SMS will be auctioned off as an NFT in a one-off sale conducted by the Aguttes Auction House in France, according to Romanian news outlet Ziarul Financiar. By auctioning off the world’s first SMS in the form of NFT, …

Global telecommunications giant Vodafone has partnered with blockchain startup Energy Web (EWT) to connect “billions'' of distributed energy generating assets via internet-of-things (IoT) and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Energy Web announced the partnership on May 26, revealing that the project will combine SIM-centric DLT with IoT connectivity provided by Vodafone Business to “create secure IDs for energy assets.” “This means that renewable and distributed assets like wind turbines, batteries, heat pumps, and solar panels can be integrated with energy grids safely and efficiently,” said Energy Web. Vodafone is a global leader in IoT with over 100 million connections worldwide. The …

Students enrolled in the University of Malta’s Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies masters program have built a decentralized application (Dapp) that has been used for voting in upcoming student representative elections, per a March 28 press release. The Dapp is built on top of a decentralized digital identity platform that was provided to the students by Vodafone. The election was the first live project to be executed using Vodafone’s digital identity platform. “We are pleased to have been the first use-case for the Vodafone [digital identity] platform, and as far as we can tell a world first to hold a …

Adding to a lengthy list of departures last fall, telecom giant Vodafone has departed the Libra association, a spokesperson from Vodafone confirmed to Cointelegraph in an email on Jan. 21, 2020. The representative said: “Vodafone Group has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association. We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion. We remain fully committed to that goal and feel that we can make the most contribution by focusing our efforts on M-Pesa. We will continue to monitor the development of the Libra Association and do not rule …