Brace Yourself Blockchain Smartphones Are Launching in 2018

In 2018 It legitimately looks as if you can slap the term blockchain and cryptocurrency on anything and it will blow up. I'm seriously thinking of launching cryptocupcakes and starting a blockchain bakery and taking my cryptographic carbs to the moon for real, any investors keen? Get this ICO while it's fresh and hot out the oven.

Block Phones are back

Well enough about my latest business idea and on to wtf a blockchain smartphone is. I mean really how do you disrupt the Smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung at this point? Well, one Swiss-based manufacturer has this device they're calling a FINNEY and claim it's going to the moon.

Remember when phones were big and got small and we called the previous era block phones and laughed at them? Lol, you still have a Blokia (Nokia) or a Rockorolla (Motorolla) well they're back, but in a different way, its got a chain attached to it now!

Sirin labs is a Swiss-based smartphone developer which launched its ICO last year and raised well over $150 million dollars for its blockchain-based phone which now has a release date of November of this year. $110 million — coming in the first 24 hours. This shows there is quite a keen interest in this project and the potential it holds going forward for phone manufacturers.

So what does 150 million buy you in today's market? Apparently, a Smartphone that runs on a hybrid Android OS called Sirin OS and retails for $1000

Device specs

• Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 mobile platform
• 6” 18:9 display
• 128GB storage memory
• SD memory card slot (up to 2TB)
• 6GB RAM
• 12MPx main camera
• 8MPx selfie camera
• 3280mAh battery
• Fingerprint sensor

Which is all fine and dandy and while I feel its a tad overpriced is still very close to what the current manufacturers are giving you for your buck these days. But we're not paying that kinda money without a unique selling point so what about them blockchain features?

Blockchain features

So with the SIRIN OS™ your device now doubles as a wallet and offers its owner

• Secure P2P resource sharing
• Built-in cold storage crypto wallet which supports major cryptocurrencies and tokens
• Distributed Ledger Consensus

Along with the SIRIN LABS Cyber Protection suite:

• Behavioral based Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
• Blockchain-based, fully tamper-proof
• Physical security switch (for wallet protection)
• Secured communications (VoIP, text, email)
• Three-Factor authentication: Biometric, Lock Pattern, Behavioral

Which all sounds pretty encouraging but I'm not sure how it gives me more bang for my buck at this point. In all honesty, I don't like keeping my crypto anything from a private key on a device I freely run around with in public, I don't care how encrypted it is. I'll keep a bit of crypto in a hot wallet with me if I'm going to make any payments with my mobile and a free wallet app works just as well for that purpose.

But there's a catch

If you're not like me and you're sold on this Finney phone and would like to buy one come November you better be ready for a painful process

The phone can only be purchased using Sirin's crypto token (based on the ERC-20 token), and 40 percent of the 573 million total tokens it created during the recent ICO have already been sold. So it best you jump on an exchange and buy $1000 worth of Sirin now.

Where to buy Sirin

You can get their ERC-20 based token on a range of exchanges namely:

• Kucoin
• Liqui
• Ubit
• Bittrex
• Houbi
• Bancor
• IDEX
• Cryptopia
• Tidex

Sirin is currently valued at $0.16 a token as of 22 July 2018 according to Coinmarketcap so you'll need around 7000 tokens to be on the safe side should you want to purchase the phone come November

For more on Sirin Labs check out the following resources:

• Website
• Whitepaper

Jumping on the blockchain bandwagon

But what why should Sirin have all the fun? The B players in the Smartphone market thought so too, B at this point may now stand for Blockchain and not second best. HTC, the well-known Taiwanese consumer electronics company, is also looking at putting out a blockchain-powered phone. HTC call their offering the HTC Exodus, according to Phil Chen, who is responsible for all blockchain and cryptocurrency-related initiatives at HTC, including Exodus. Like the Sirin Labs phone, the Exodus will reportedly feature universal cryptocurrency wallets as well as a secure hardware enclave.

Oh Huawei there

With HTC building their phone, and Sirin just a few months from releasing theirs, Huawei sends its greetings by taking their first steps toward a blockchain-based phone. Again, looking to build a phone that will be able to support DApps and offer a similar ranged product to Sirin and HTC. Considering these already established brands with expertise, resources & retail affiliations HTC and Huawei could be looking to bring in cheaper alternatives to the premium Smartphone market and target users who want the tech but aren't ready to part with $1000 and still have to use crypto to do so. I'm just speculating but it would be a better game plan for these companies.

What I think of this whole thing

Firstly I have to admit that seeing an ICO follow through on its investment and create a physical product that is ready to ship to market is inspiring and a great example for the much-maligned funding mechanism.

I'm all for new competition and improved products especially in the consumer electronics market I don't see how this is anything more than a marketing ploy and doesn't really excite me to the point of forsaking my iPhone. Surely at this point devices are ubiquitous and a cross-platform app is all you really need to bridge the gap.

Where I do see blockchain being a potential disruptor in the market is this dApp thing though, having Google and iTunes as our gateway to all apps is an oligopoly I'm not comfortable with, these companies have access to millions of user records, credit cards and have created a largely profitable rent seeking platform. Milking other app developers hard work and ingenuity by allowing them access to devices consumers overpaid for in the first place. Its great for their bottom line and shareholders but is it really great for the rest of us? I don't think so!

Have your say

What do you think of these blockchain enabled devices? A gimmick or a possible disruptive technology? Does everything need to be blockchain based at this point? Do we even care if our devices are blockchain ready?

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Sources:

• Cointelegraph
• Smartereum
• Bitcoin Exchange Guide