[Crypto News] 2019 the year of the Blockchain smartphone with built in crypto wallet

Samsung, Sirin labs and HTC and even PundiX

Are all first movers in this new level of integrated tech – the smart phone with built in cold storage wallet and DApp ecosystem. This is very exciting news for the industry and paves the road to mainstream adoption of cyrptocurrency and more particularly blockchain technology.

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Galaxy10 vs Finney

Samsung have been the most cagey about it. They are definitely seeking to secure a trademark in UK for their own cryptocurrency wallet, but are denying rumours of an actual new product. I wonder what the delay was? Anyway, their new Galaxy S10 was already beaten to the line by Sirin Labs who recently released the Finney, the world’s first blockchain smartphone. The phone is named after Hal Finney, one of Satoshi’s OG original peers during the early days of the first bitcoin release. He has since passed away and entered he blockchain to the stars, but his name now lives on in this first-of-its-kind smart phone.

Messi on the blockchain

They really had their advertising and ICO set up smartly with legend Lionel Messi as the face of their product. That guy is a god to some of his fans, like Maradonna, or Pele. So you can’t get a much bigger face in the sports world. Ronaldo supporters may disagree. But that is like saying Ethereum is better than Bitcoin. They are both legends.

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Finney Features

• Embedded cold storage wallet that's physically separate from the main hardware
• Sirin OS - a "Google-certified" mod of the Android operating system
• AI-driven cyber-threat detection
• Direct exchange of selected cryptocurrencies (Eth and BTC and Sirin Labs Token) without the need to use a centralized exchange.
• 12MP (megapixel) rear camera
• 8MP selfie camera
• 6-inch touchscreen,
• 6GB of RAM
• 128GB of storage memory

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This, in fact

Puts Finney, more or less in the same league as this year's iPhone XS, which also has a 12MP rear camera (albeit a dual one), 4GB RAM, 5.5-inch screen and 7MP selfie camera. With the $1000 price tag, it’s not cheap, even after their amazingly successful ICO, raising $157 billion last year. Still, it does provide diehard crypto enthusiasts with a more practical way of securely managing their coins.

"Before the Finney, you needed a ledger, you needed a computer, you needed wallet software and then you needed to go to an exchange, and then you could convert. The Finney does all of this in one phone."

Sirin Labs' co-founder and co-CEO Moshe Hogeg

This is a neat

All-in-one gadget that will really assist newcomers who do not have accounts on big exchanges. The ease of onramp to crypto is the crucial link in mainstream adoption and the blockchain phone could be the key here. And the Dapp store is a winner, and process of transactions is quick and painless paving the way for more use case scenarios.

"I think security and privacy is the number one priority right now. For everybody it's important, because we have all our content, all our lives on mobile phones […] there are lots of hackers, and people can steal your identity or your money."

Lionel Messi

You may have noticed that

The new practice is to give out free tokens on launch, something like and airdrop or incentivised activity or adverstising, in exchange for coins. Similarly the new Finney provides users with a DApp store for decentralized, crypto-related applications, and even rewards them with SRN Tokens for engaging and spending time with the apps it offers in their “Earn to Learn” programme.

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"Our entire concept is to bridge the gap...and as such, we're going to open concept stores in London and Tokyo and other places. Our stores will be kind of an academy for the blockchain community.”

— Erin Brazilay Commercial Officer Sirin Labs' Chief

There are admittedly concerns that

This might only appeal to a niche market of insiders, geeks and tech specialists. Give it time... Besides that, HTC also released their Exodus 1 in December, and like the Finney, it's a high-end smartphone that features a cold storage wallet. It’s slightly cheaper but only by around $40. It even uses the Brave browser, a current ad-free favourite, as the default. They are built with the BAT (Basic Attention Token) as their cryptocurrency, To top it off we also have the Indian cryptocurrency PundiX with a blockchain smartphone due in Q2 2019 that can make phone calls, texts and mobile data using blockchain nodes, thus avoiding the need to use centralized mobile networks.

This is a breakthrough of note.

Decentralisation in the Indian rural heartland.

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"What makes the XPhone unique is that it actually uses a blockchain-based protocol for communicating data, making calls, sending messages and more. That means users communicate with each other securely and independently of a central carrier via nodes. We will stand by the uniqueness of the way in which we have reinvented blockchain for use as a transmission protocol for telephony and data of all kinds. In every sense, we have built a true blockchain phone."

PundiX vice president Peko Wan

Samsung won’t be left behind, of course

They have also released a new production process of their 7-nanometer (nm) Low Power Plus (7LPP) process node, which could reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent. The chip could certainly have huge benefits for crypto miners using any of Samsung’s hardware, as energy costs are definitely a critical factor in the industry’s profitability. Not everyone is a student mining on a rig with residence power on campus.

Would you buy a blockchain smartphone?

The question remains. How long will it take for these blockchain smartphones to hit the mainstream? How long is it going to take for your average Joe and Jane to consider buying one? Are you considering buying one for yourself? These are the questions that come up to my mind when reading articles surrounding the topic of blockchain smartphones. A lot of progress still has to be done for this to take place, imo.

Anywhere from 5 to 10 years down the line, is where I would place my guess to when the mainstream adoption of blockchain based smartphones will happen but that is just my opinion, what do you think?

Let me know in the comment section down below!

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