It’s December and Christmas is already here. It’s that time of the year we all start thinking about treating ourselves and loved ones to new tech. For the crypto aficionados out there, the rollercoaster charts can take all the fun out of the season. But just as you would be busy checking prices during your family dinner this Xmas, I have a question for you: how decentralized or crypto-friendly are you? It turns out getting yourself a blockchain phone is one of the ways to being decentralized. And when your family asks: how’s that blockchain thing? You’ll have something to show for it.
Check out these blockchain phones and see which one would be good for the Xmas season. At least, if you missed the Lambo ride, don’t miss the blockchain phone too.
The Finney Phone - by Sirin Labs
Your family might have already realized that crypto prices are currently bad. But if you want to tell them that you stand for the tech, and not just for prices, the Finney Phone from Sirin Labs might help. The $999 Finney phone is a dual screen, 6-inch phone that boasts of flagship features, a not-so-modern and sleek design, as well as crypto and blockchain capabilities.
General features of the Finney
Generally, the Finney Phone rocks shoulders with the 2018 flagship phone market. Under its hood is an 845 Snapdragon processor, accompanied by a 3,280mAh battery capacity, a 6GB RAM, and a 128GB adjustable internal storage. Finney is a 6-inch phone with not-so-disturbing bezels, comes with an 8-megapixels front camera and a 12-megapixel rear camera.
Blockchain and crypto features of the Finney
When it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency capabilities, the possibilities enabled by the Finney phone, according to Sirin Labs, are endless. The phone runs the Sirin OS, a Google Certified and ultra-secured clone of Android 8.1. As a dual-screen phone, Finney’s second screen is 2 inches and slides up from the device’s main body, a feature Sirin Labs says prepares the phone’s cold wallet for crypto transactions.
Among other things, Finney promises cutting-edge security and blockchain features, including built-in cold storage for your cryptos, secure access to crypto exchanges, p2p resource sharing, including connectivity and data, and high computational power. There is also the SRN token, which according to Sirin Labs, serves as a payment solution and a gateway to its decentralized application store for users.
Just as the blockchain promises to deliver better, peer-to-peer, decentralized solutions, Finney promises to be the phone that will help achieve these aims. But is the Finney up to what it promises?
Not all that glitters is gold
- At 9.3mm thick, Finney does fall short of the flagship phone market in terms of thickness, looking at the many 8mm-thick phones out there. But we could forgive it because it’s decentralized.
- The 3,280mAh battery capacity is not encouraging and might not deliver the mobile experience users would want, considering all the blockchain features that might require considerable amounts of power.
- Sirin Labs’ co-CEO, in an interview with Bloomberg, said the firm can only survive up to 6-12 months on the money they currently have. This might lead to them ditching the phone in order to focus on selling the software to other manufacturers. What happens to your Finney then? Well, we’ll figure that out when we get there.
Bottom Line
If you want to tell your family that at least, you have a small Lambo in your pocket as a sign of a good crypto market, you can go for the Finney. It offers general features, as well as crypto and blockchain capabilities. But if you don’t want to experiment with a manufacturer who is not that established or even planning to stop producing its phones, there’s another one for you.The Exodus 1 - by HTC
The Exodus 1 is HTC’s phone for the blockchain and crypto market. It’s sleek, beautiful, and comes with modern designs that rival any flagship phone on the market. The 6 inches HTC’s Exodus 1 might just be the best blockchain phone in the market, not because HTC is a veteran phone manufacturer, but the phone’s flagship features go with the market, as well as beat some features of the Finney phone, which is fighting with Exodus 1 for the position of the “best blockchain phone”.
General features of the Exodus 1
The Exodus 1 packs some interesting flagship features under its hood, including a 3,500mAh battery capacity, two rear cameras (16 and 12 megapixels), and dual selfie cameras of 8 megapixels each. The device also comes with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845, Android 8.1 OS, a 6GB RAM, and 128GB non-expandable internal storage. The fast-charging capacity, dust, and waterproof features, and a 1440 x 3120 resolution make the Exodus 1 a gem. But how decentralized and crypto-friendly is this phone?
Blockchain features of Exodus 1
HTC’s Exodus 1 has very interesting blockchain and crypto features that any crypto enthusiast will love. Each Exodus 1 constitutes a node inside HTC’s native blockchain network. The $700 - $900 phone ships with Zion, an HTC acclaimed all-in-one secure wallet on the blockcahin that stores dApps and cryptocurrencies, with current support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
The Exodus 1 also includes the TrustZone “Secure Enclave”, a digital bank security measure that you can’t find on your normal android or iOS phone. The phone’s hope for a decentralized future brings with it a Social Key Recovery system, which allows you to recover your crypto and data even after you lose your device. There is also a key management API and the Zion SDK for developers who would like to add support for Zion-based payments into their applications.
The troubles with Exodus 1
- Since this is a blockchain phone, the lack of cold storage makes the Exodus 1 less secure when it comes to crypto security (of course, cold storage has its downsides too).
- The phone’s social key security system is also an issue. You choose up to 5 friends, with each having to keep a shard of your key in order to unlock the private enclave in case of issues. If one of your friends losses access to their devices, that’s trouble on your part as you’ll have difficulties recovering your information.
- The fact that each Exodus 1 is a node on HTC’s native blockchain network also breeds some questions when it comes to decentralization, and of course, future data breaches.
Buy or no buy
Well, HTC has been in this game for years, and so when it comes to general features, we think it will perform well. What you might want to consider is that HTC’s decentralized chief officer Phil Chen disclosed in an interview that the phone is like an experiment into better, more scalable blockchain phones in the future. Maybe you wouldn’t want to experiment with them. Otherwise, you should give it a try.Magical Crypto
Whether you are looking to impress your family with a blockchain phone or to quench your thirst for not getting a Lambo because of crypto prices this year, you can get a blockchain phone that achieves your aim if you are ready to weather the downsides of those devices.
Originally posted on Crypto Insider : https://cryptoinsider.com/which-blockchain-phone-to-add-to-your-christmas-wish-list/