The company obtained a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for this concept on 10 September. The patent describes how a physical SIM card can be replaced by a software equivalent – a virtual SIM (vSIM) – secured with blockchain-based encryption.

A device on the mobile network would create a user account for storing one or more vSIMs and a selection of network services to be associated with the account. The network device then creates a blockchain record including a vSIM certificate for the network services and an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) – a number that identifies all users of a mobile network. The vSIM certificate is then linked to the user account and can be activated on a client’s mobile device.

The vSIM can be assigned any of multiple mobile devices linked to the user account and transferred between the devices. In this way, a company could purchase several vSIMs and assign them to its employees at will and later re-assign them to others using the system.