Using decentralized eSIMs, travelers and digital nomads can easily access global mobile networks and the internet without needing to use traditional carriers or paying expensive roaming fees.
Boundless, the latest entry in the growing decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) industry, will launch its app for internal testing later this week and is targeting mid-November for an official launch. The Boundless service will provide internet access, is private, and requires no KYC to purchase, according to Isaac Rodgin, who heads Business Development at Liquify, a blockchain infrastructure provider that manages validator nodes and supports blockchain projects.
Boundless is being launched in partnership with Dent, developers of the Dentnet blockchain.
“Every time I fly to a different country, I have to buy eight eSIMS,” Rodgin said, asserting that Boundless will solve that problem.
“It’s not an infrastructure play for blockchain, and it’s not the 5G marketplace,” he added. “It’s this new product that’s a comfortable front end for buying 5G data. We offered to abstract away all the complexity and give just a Web2 user interface to connect to complicated things.”
Rodgin said that Boundless’s main selling point is privacy. “The privacy advantage, because of decentralization, is obfuscation of data,” Rodgin said. “Your data is sent to an aggregated pool, and basically obfuscated and not tied to your account.”
Of course, this anonymity is only as secure as the websites and activities of the user. “If you are doing malicious things, you can be caught and tracked down, and you should be,” he said.
Competitors building decentralized telecommunication technology include Bloxsim, Helium, DCConnect Global, and Roam. E-commerce website BitRefill offers eSIM cards that customers can purchase with Google Pay, Apple Pay, Credit Cards, and a growing list of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and Dogecoin.
According to Rodgin, when the Boundless service fully launches next month, 5G data plans can be purchased using a credit card, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, or DentX, the native token of the Dentnet blockchain. While pricing has not been divulged yet, Rodgin acknowledged that a Boundless plan could end up being expensive and is for people who aren’t afraid to pay a little more for privacy.
“Price isn’t where we’re outcompeting people,” he said. “If someone’s just trying to look to save a few pennies, we might not be the best solution. And that’s also okay. It’s really geared towards people who want pseudonymity, and crypto payments.”