Sirin Labs, a Swiss-based development lab, has announced that their “Finney” smartphone will be released in November. The phone is currently available to purchase (pre-order) through their website, with a price tag of $999 USD. This is a pretty reasonable price tag when compared to Sirin’s previous phone, the $17,000 Solarin.
Here’s Sirin’s video showing off the new phone and a personal computer that run on Sirin’s blockchain technology. If you can get past the overuse of visual effects, and the way the presenter holds his hands, it’s pretty cool:
What makes it a “blockchain” phone? While the phone is primarily run on an Android operating system, some applications will run on the SIRIN OS.
“This is designed to support inherent Blockchain applications, such as a crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications, and a P2P resource sharing ecosystem for payment and apps, supported by the SRN token.”
FINNEY™ smart devices will create an independent blockchain network using a distributed ledger consensus mechanism. This enables fast payments between the network peers without the need for mining (fee-less). FINNEY™ devices will feature a cold storage crypto wallet compatible with the most common cryptocurrencies. The UI/UX will be developed to solve the technical pains of exercising crypto transactions by providing a platform for friendly and secure payments.
Reading between the lines a little, it looks like Sirin is putting in a big bet that smartphones and blockchain technology will soon be inextricably linked, like browsers and the internet, or peanut butter and jelly. If this is the case, there’s an opportunity for a new ecosystem of apps, payments, messaging – everything that Apple currently does (and takes a large cut on). There’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to pull off this feat, but do they have a chance?
And while there’s plenty to be skeptical about with any new hardware, there’s a lot to like here: The phone is being manufactured by Foxconn, the Chinese supplier/manufacturer that builds for Apple, Google and others. There’s probably not a better phone manufacturer on the planet. Sirin, the company designing it, already has a phone under its belt; While not a huge commercial success, the Solarin gained mostly positive reviews and will lend some learnings to the new smartphone. And, as mentioned, the Finney is running an Android operating system, to avoid having to reinvent the wheel of creating an OS from scratch.
You can pre-order the phone now from sirinlabs.com, and save 10% if you pay with their SRN token.
Support for crypto wallets and blockchain apps will make it easier to use your trusted cryptocurrency exchange platform to buy cryptocurrency and move it into a wallet. Mobile wallets are useful for cryptocurrency users who want to keep their coins secure but also accessible for transactions. At Bitbuy, not only do we make it easy to buy cryptocurrency in Canada, coin withdrawals into a wallet or another platform are free. It’s a great way to buy cryptocurrency you plan to store elsewhere.
In case you’re not familiar with crypto wallets, cold storage means your coins are kept offline. It’s the safest way to protect your funds from hackers. While we make it easy to get started with crypto, a cold wallet helps you keep it safe.
Reading between the lines a little, it looks like Sirin is putting in a big bet that smartphones and blockchain technology will soon be inextricably linked, like browsers and the internet, or peanut butter and jelly. If this is the case, there’s an opportunity for a new ecosystem of apps, payments, messaging – everything that Apple currently does (and takes a large cut on). There’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to pull off this feat, but do they have a chance?
Well, they’ve got the cash to do it: In addition to pre-orders for the phone, Sirin has raised $160 million in an ICO for their SRN token. And if they do, it could bring cryptocurrency even closer into the mainstream. It never hurts to check out the latest price of Bitcoin as new like this develops and speculators see the potential of new technology.
