Canadian tech firm Ubique Networks Inc. has signed an agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) to launch a blockchain-based eSports platform. The agreement was signed on November 14 at the official residence of the Canadian High Commission to Sri Lanka.
The SLT eSports Platform will be powered by Ubique Networks’ Swarmio platform, a decentralized competitive gaming platform that enables eSports enthusiasts to play and organize competitions on latency optimized game servers. Swarmio is the first third-party DApp built on the company’s Q Network. It currently services over 25,000 eSports gamers across multiple geographies.
Vijai Karthigesu, CEO of Ubique Networks, said the SLT eSports Platform “will allow Sri Lankan gamers to raise their profiles to international levels.”
“SLT is using the Swarmio eSports platform and the Q network to deliver a powerful solution to the millennials in Sri Lanka,” he told CoinJournal. He added that SLT has also started, in parallel, a project to build a 5G mobile Internet-of-Things (IoT) DApp for Smart Cities using the Q Network.
The Q Network is a distributed computing network especially designed for interactive, real-time applications that uses unique, proprietary networking, latency optimization technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to dynamically route data traffic to the point of need in real-time.
The core DApp on Q Network is Q Node, which allows anyone with a standard computer to rent out their excess computing resources, transforming their devices into micro datacenters that can act as hosts for game servers, IoT servers or video/voice conferencing servers.
When a user wants to run an application, Q Network’s “smart routing” technology selects the optimal micro datacenter, whether that’s a PC, a tablet or a laptop, to run the application on-demand, based on where the user is located and what application is being run.
“Our vision is to build a hyper-connected compute network where user-generated personal devices are easily on-boarded and linked with one another, delivering the next generation of immersive and interactive applications,” Karthigesu said. “We believe that future advancements across all fronts will be powered by a decentralized world, owned, shared and operated by the global community.”
Q Network, a project launched in 2015, is the culmination of a 20+ year career building the backbone of Canada’s telco infrastructure, Karthigesu said. It was developed over a three-year period with US$7 million in total investment from the Canadian Government and venture capital (VC) firms. The company is planning an initial coin offering (ICOs) to decentralize its technology and tokenize the business model.
“We are now moving both the Q network and the Swarmio application to blockchain and decentralizing the technology and tokenizing the business model,” Karthigesu said.
Ubique is on a global expansion strategy, with Sri Lanka being the first country it’s focusing on in Asia. Karthigesu said the company is already in discussion with large Asian telecom companies in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India and Thailand, as well as IoT companies, and eSports partners, to expand the utility of the Q Network.