T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom will soon mine Bitcoin in addition to running nodes

Deutsche Telekom, the German-based telecommunication provider that ranks as the largest in Europe, will soon mine Bitcoin, according to remarks made by the head of Web3 infrastructure and solutions at Deutsche Telekom-owned subsidiary T-Systems MMS at the BTC Prague conference on Friday. 

"Since 2023 we [have been] running a Bitcoin node and we are running Bitcoin Lightning nodes as well," said Dirk Röder, wearing a shirt featuring a pink Bitcoin graphic styled after Deutsche Telekom's logo. "And with a heart full of [...] pride, I would like to let you in on a little secret: we will engage in 'digital monetary photosynthesis' soon." 

After Bitcoin influencer Joe Nakamoto pressed Röder for clarification, asking "So is T-Mobile mining Bitcoin?", Röder clarified , "We will." 

Deutsche Telekom's crypto activities aren't limited to Bitcoin. Following similar node operation and investment partnerships with blockchains Polkadot, Flow, and Celo, the company announced in 2022 its support for Ethereum through running validator nodes and cooperating with liquid staking protocol StakeWise, joining its governance DAO. In addition to operating nodes on the Polkadot and Celo networks, the company has also made direct investments those protocols' tokens. 

Other partnerships between Deutsche Telekom and blockchain companies include running a validation node for Polygon and supporting the Q and Chainlink blockchain networks.