The Race to the World's First Crypto Smartphone: HTC and Sirin Labs Go Head to Head

As cryptocurrency becomes more widely adopted, tech companies race to integrate secure crypto storage functionality into the most prolific devices used today - smartphones.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee recently announced native Litecoin and Lightning Network support for the upcoming HTC Exodus smartphone - which is currently touted by HTC as the "World's first native blockchain phone."

There are a number of competitors that are aiming to beat HTC to the punch with a wave of blockchain-enabled smartphones will integrated hardware wallets slated to hit the market in the second half of 2018.Met the HTC Exodus team last week and was really excited to hear the phone will support LTC and Lightning Network on Litecoin natively! I will be an advisor as I see having a secure crypto phone that makes LN simple is needed for mass adoption.

Taiwan-based HTC steps forward as the first major smartphone manufacturer to specifically target the blockchain ecosystem, aiming to create a smartphone that offers hardware wallet functionality and decentralized application support out of the box with the HTC Exodus.

"When we ship this, it will be the most secure cold storage wallet on the market We do see this as a completely new sort of path of what a smartphone is, and I think this notion of a smartphone will completely change because of blockchain technologies."

In a recent interview with the Verge, Chen stated that the Exodus will be closely priced to the HTC's primary competitor in the blockchain smartphone race - Sirin Labs' "Finney" device - at around $1,000 USD. Chen anticipates a launch date for the Exodus in Q4 2018.

Israeli startup Sirin Labs, the company behind the $14,000 ultra-secure Solarin smartphone, is aiming to tackle the blockchain smartphone market not only with a dedicated handheld device, but with an entire operating system, smartphone, and blockchain-enabled desktop computer.

The "Finney" smartphone, named after Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney, is designed to pair with Sirin Labs' Finney PC, which claims the title of the "First blockchain all-in-one PC built on thin client practices."

Operating a forked version of Android, the Finney smartphone will have a built-in cold storage crypto wallet accessed with a slider that reveals a secondary display called the "Safe screen." Sirin Labs states that the safe screen will run on separate firmware similar to a hardware wallet.

Sirin Labs aims to make the Finney smartphone available to consumers in November 2018.Cover Photo by Hala AlGhanim on Unsplash.