How 5G technology and Blockchain tech can complement each other

Experts say 5G and blockchain will complement each other, and work wonders in several areas. For instance, Mohammed Roshan, co-founder of Bitcoin rewards application GoSats, believes that the two technologies could work together in the supply chain, transportation and logistics, retail, automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, government, energy and utility sectors, among others.

Moneycontrol spoke to several industry experts to gauge the possible use cases and various benefits that will accrue from 5G and blockchain working in harmony.

Protecting privacy, boosting app development

While 5G would help India adopt and operate Blockchain technology faster, blockchain will play a critical role in ensuring user privacy and security across the telecom spectrum,” says Vikram R Singh, Founder and CEO of blockchain development company Antier. “Blockchain technology can play a crucial role in validating 5G connections, steering them away from spam and identity fraud.”

The app development market will also see a boost in innovations by combining these technologies, as download and upload speeds will increase and blockchain will help data maintenance to become more transparent, added Singh.

Wider adoption of crypto financial products

“Crypto financial products will see more adoption as solutions that overwrite the complexity of multi-step transactions are simplified for easy use by the common person,” says Vivek Gupta, Vice President of Product Engineering at crypto exchange CoinDCX.

Tracking shipments and traffic

Another interesting use case was pointed out by Tapan Sangal, Founder and Chief Evangelist of P2E Pro, a Web3 deeptech company: “Consumers want shipment and other tracking details of their orders. If the product is ordered from overseas, it will not be easy to track the location. But, via 5G and Blockchain technology, consumers and businesses will be able to track the exact location in real-time,” he says.

Edul Patel, co-founder of Mudrex, a crypto investment firm, believes that using 5G in blockchain can enable sharing of traffic information with ease. 5G and blockchain can improve public safety with surveillance systems giving officials a quick and better understanding of the ground situation, he said.

Decentralising IoT models

Currently, the Internet of Things (IoT) models — internet-connected devices ranging from laptops to heavy industrial machines — are centralised, meaning, one entity owns a model, making it riskier for wider adoption.

But blockchain promises decentralisation, which means nobody controls how these devices operate, and every transfer of data is recorded in a distributed ledger, giving users full control over their privacy.

According to Shrikant Bhalerao, CEO of Blockchain and Digital Assets Infrastructure firm Seracle, the potential use cases of 5G and blockchain technology are limitless. “But the two techniques can create a secure and decentralised IoT ecosystem. It can virtually open avenues of opportunities for the blockchain space,” he says.

Wider adoption of the metaverse

A metaverse is a shared, online 3D space where users can interact with each other and with computer-generated objects and avatars. It’s a virtual world that uses the Internet as its underlying network.

Amer Ahmad, director of technology of digital agency Blink Digital, says that metaverses are data heavy and require a lot of time to render, which makes for poor user experiences. However, 5G with its faster speeds, lower data costs and lower latency, has the potential to solve the problem, he added.

Giving NFTs a leg up

NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Asked if 5G could in any way impact NFTs, Anmol Chawla, co-founder of crypto tax calculation platform TaxCryp, believes that with 5G, AR and VR-based NFTs could become the norm, noting that as of now NFTs are mostly on a screen.

“But that would be just the start. It would be impossible to predict what level it could reach. Perhaps an AR-based NFT that you wear on your body can move as you do and be visible to others via AR lenses… the potential is immense,” he adds.

Helping educational institutions harness the metaverse

Trinesh Rai, co-founder of metaverse project ClassAvatar, says that with the coming together of 5G, metaverse and NFTs, educational Institutions can build their Digital Twins in the Metaverse.

“5G will help facilitate these Metaversities/MetaSchools in teaching and learning immersively, with student and faculty accessing via their Avatars in real-time as they do on the physical campus.

Educators will create live and recorded immersive content that can be converted into NFTs and accessed by learners. Student Avatars will buy university branded clothing and accessories and these will be NFTs,” he explains.