What is Dent?
Dent is a cryptocurrency that aims to disrupt the cellphone industry by decentralizing the purchase and sales of mobile data. It strives to tie together all mobile service providers worldwide so that users can easily buy, sell or trade non-expirable data plans/packages via utilization of their novel application blockchain technology. Dent plans to free users from having to pay data roaming charges, which can sometimes be quite hefty due to costs incurred through the inter-linkage of trans-global, non-affiliated telecommunications companies. It also will supply users with a list of available data purchase options so they can find the cheapest and/or best plan to suit their particular needs.
History of Dent
DENT Wireless Ltd., a Hong Kong-based corporation, was founded in 2014 by Tero Katajainen. It began as an automated mobile data sales system offering “built-in risk management functions.” In 2017, other partners joined in to make DENT a blockchain-based solution to customer mobile data needs, with plans to expand their horizon to a worldwide audience. Katajainen obtained his master’s degree from the University of Tampere, Finland, and already had 20 years experience building and managing internet startup companies before embarking on his quest to unify cell phone and mobile data service providers around the world through the “tokenization of mobile data.” As of January 2018, they have connected to service operators in eight different countries.
How Dent Works
Dent plans on reduction of mobile data costs by localizing data services instead of phone data having to be re-routed across thousands of miles via a process they call “Local Breakout.” Participants of the DENT blockchain will be able to share data with one another, which will be transmitted through their decentralized network instead of that of a centralized, commercial signal carrier.
By utilizing new developments in SIMcard technology, such as the e-SIM, Dent plans to create a “global bridge” that connects all participating data carriers, thus enabling a cross-participation among service providers across the globe. The DENT token is based on the Ethereum network and makes use of the advanced API contained within the coin’s platform. Dent hopes to eventually expand services to other carriers by making it an attractive necessity for them that has the ability to simultaneously reduce user and carrier costs.
Why Use Dent?
From the coin’s homepage:
“Our vision is to create a global marketplace using blockchain, where everyone on this planet has the opportunity to buy and sell mobile data packages and liberate mobile data.
The telco industry is a complicated, fragmented mess and so 1990’s. There are a handful of telcos in each country, isolated silos that don’t interoperate properly with each other on the mobile market. Telco users are stuck in a trap, where their purchased data packages expire every month, even if they paid for it. We are striving to liberate it, while creating new opportunities for telcos too.”