The blockchain era is penetrating the mobile market as not one, but two mobile phones will appear on the market. Just over a week after Sirin Labs announced the specs for its Finney phone, HTC comes out of the blue offering its Exodus.
So far, there are no details on specs. We do know, however, that Phil Chen—the founder of HTC Vive, the company’s VR headset—is coming back to the company after a two-year hiatus, this time as Decentralized Chief Officer. He will lead the project, which will produce one of the first blockchain-fueled phones in the world.
“The Exodus is the first native blockchain phone dedicated to bringing end consumers the best decentralized application (DApp) experiences, including a built-in secure hardware enclave, and helping underlying protocols expand their base of dedicated nodes, thus expanding the total blockchain ecosystem,” shared Phil Chen.
Last week, Sirin Labs released the specs for its Finney blockchain phone, which is capable of delivering quite the punch compared to other flagships in its category, including the Samsung (KS:005930) Galaxy S9.
As flashy as the Finney may be, HTC is a company with a broad reach and several years of experience pioneering developments in the Android space. These phones have now become direct competitors to each other, and we might see them go head-to-head as both manufacturers rush to put out their models.
The Finney’s spec release implies that the phone is close to shipping. Once the HTC Exodus reaches this stage, it might have to contend with an incumbent that has already taken the claim of “first-ever blockchain phone.”
“I want to see a world where the end consumers can truly own their data (browsing history, identity, assets, wallets, emails, messaging, etc.) without the need for central authorities. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but I believe the mobile hardware layer can contribute significantly to our decentralized world,” Chen concluded.
The question that now remains is, “Will this push for blockchain technology generate enough buzz for HTC to recoup market share from the likes of the heavyweight champion that is Samsung?”
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
