German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom has become the first telecommunication company to operate a validator within the NEAR Protocol.
Deutsche Telekom AG, the world’s fifth-largest telecommunications company by revenue, is joining the NEAR ecosystem’s Enterprise Node Operators program to support the decentralization and security of the network.
In a press release on November 11, Deutsche Telekom stated that it will play a “key role” in the blockchain’s operation as a validator, as part of the NEAR ecosystem’s institutional orientation.
Oliver Nyderle, head of digital trust & web3 infrastructure at Deutsche Telekom, described the collaboration as “promising and innovative,” and emphasized that the network shares the company’s commitment to “greater data sovereignty and user data control for the benefit of the users.”
Deutsche Telekom stated that collaboration with NEAR expands its “staking portfolio” to include a network in the field of “decentralized AI and scalability,” although it did not provide specific details about the extent of its involvement as the network’s validator.
To become a block-producing validator on the NEAR Protocol, the minimum required stake often references the “seat price” based on the 100th highest proposal among validators. According to the network’s documentation, the threshold for stake changes dynamically based on validator participation, with the absolute minimum threshold set at 67,000 NEAR (approximately $383,000 at the current market price). Following the news, the NEAR price surged by 9.5% to $5.6.
This collaboration comes shortly after Deutsche Telekom subsidiary MMS and Bankhaus Metzler, Germany’s second oldest bank, launched a pilot project to explore the use of surplus renewable energy for Bitcoin mining. The project aims to gather field data that could help stabilize Germany’s energy grid.
Read more: Commerzbank partners with Deutsche Borse’s subsidiary for crypto offerings.