A16z taps Deutsche Telekom subsidiary as Celo validator

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems MMS is now a public validator on Celo via its Open Telekom Cloud infrastructure.

The United States-based venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has picked T-Systems MMS validator group, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, to delegate its native Celo assets.

According to a notice on Deutsche Telekom's website on Tuesday, T-Systems MMS is running the validator nodes via the company's Open Telekom Cloud, which reportedly delivers robust security capabilities.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Deutsche Telekom invested in Celo back in April, becoming the first telecommunications firm to join the Celo Alliance for Prosperity. At the time, the company also purchased a significant amount of the mobile decentralized finance platform's native token, CELO.

T-Systems MMS is staking its parent company's CELO tokens as well as other Celo-based assets held by a16z.

A16z has been a supporter of Celo and has regularly participated in capital raises for the open-source blockchain payments project. Back in April 2019, a16z joined Polychain Capital and other investors in a $30 million funding round for Celo.

Commenting on its choice to delegate its Celo assets to Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, a16z general partner Katie Huan said:

“Electing a diverse set of globally distributed validators is critical to maintaining a blockchain network that is secure and technically robust. We partnered with Deutsche Telekom because their incentives align with Celo's vision of building a global payment platform that can be used by anyone with just a mobile phone.”

Related: Deutsche Telekom invests in mobile DeFi platform Celo

Apart from Celo, T-Systems MMS is a node operator on Chainlink, with the company also providing support infrastructure for Flow, another blockchain project. Andreas Dittrich, the company's blockchain head, describes public blockchains as “the future of value-based collaboration.”

CELO, like the rest of the crypto market, is currently experiencing a significant downturn since setting a new all-time high of almost $7 back in April. As with other altcoins, CELO’s price decline has seen the token lose close to 74% from its April high.