Polkadot's DOT joins Unity Nodes in bid to power 'world's first' decentralized telecom edge network

Polkadot's native cryptocurrency, DOT, will be used to pay participants in Unity Nodes, a new decentralized telecom edge network that turns smartphones into verification nodes and anchors results onchain, according to a joint release from Minutes Network Token X (MNTx) and World Mobile Treasury Services (WMTx).

Unity Nodes is pitched as an onchain alternative to traditional carrier auditing. Licensed operators perform verification tasks — from test calls to route pings and fault checks — with each event hashed to World Mobile Chain for an immutable log.

Rewards are funded from carrier fees and can be redeemed in supported assets, now including DOT, alongside BTC, ETH, ADA, WMTx, and MNTx. The team claims Unity Nodes is the "world's first decentralized telecom edge network."

"Telecom is already proving itself in DePIN," said Josh Watkins, CEO of Minutes Network. "We're adding real-world onchain verification and making DOT redeemable within a live telecom rewards ecosystem with Unity."

Polkadot is a multichain blockchain platform designed to connect application-specific "parachains" to a shared security layer. DOT is used for staking, validation, governance, and bonding parachains to the network. The integration places DOT inside a telecom-focused DePIN rewards model tied to live network verification.

Meanwhile, Unity's architecture fuses Minutes Network's carrier operations, MNTx switch/validation nodes, and WMTx as the settlement and proof anchor. The companies say each Unity License operator becomes a mini verification hub, with results available to partners via API for real-time audits.