A closer look at three blockchain smartphones

So there have been several examples of companies making ‘blockchain-ready’ phones. To gain a better understanding about what this means, this article is meant to discuss the possibilities of implementing blockchain technologies in smartphones.

Let’s start of with three examples:

Pundi X XPhone

This company offers a phone for their blockchain-based payment ecosystem. The main focus of Pundi X is to enable stores to accept crypto-payments, so they offer point-of-sale (POS) devices for retail and payment options for customers. The phone works on their blockchain, called function X, in addition to normal connectivity options via telecom providers, and serves as a native payment device for the POS infrastructure in the stores.

1. Make phone calls, send text messages, and enable P2P file transfers over the Function X blockchain.
2. The phone serves as a secure wallet, which you have to set up when you first start the phone.
3. Every phone is a node on the network, optionally bypassing centralized telecom operators. Data packets and connectivity is organized in a distributed, P2P manner.

4. 
   

   
   

   
   

   The NPXS token serves as a utility token in the ecosystem:– First, to “publishing apps on Pundi XPOS app store requires NPXS tokens and NPXS is a default token to settle the payment within the application. Depending on the different type of developers, we charge up to 30% of handling fee in NPXS. The Pundi X contract will burn this kind of NPXS tokens.”– Second, Pundi X NPXS tokens can also be used as loyalty awards for a deduction of the transaction amount. It will encourage the consumers to use Pundi X to make purchases. It also helps store owners to increase the revenue and customer satisfaction and further increase Pundi X’s business network.– Third, advertising possibilities. “Advertisers, developers, and ad network can place advertisement through Pundi X advertising platform. The ad content and placement can be consumer ads on the side screen of Pundi XPOS, ads on the receipts, store owner notification ads, ads on the membership system, ads on Pundi XPASS cards, ads on successful payment notification.” (source)

Tokenomics of Pundi X’s NPXS token (hi-res)

Notes

• Dubai is one of the first countries in which the Pundi X payment ecosystem is being implemented (source). The company is currently deploying 5000 units per month (source).
• The implementation of blockchain technology is focused on payment options, for which the phone is a physical and digital wallet.
• The DApp store should be interchained and allow compatibility with applications build on Ethereum, EOS, NEO, and other platforms.
• The XPhone currently seems not ready for mass production, but developers and early adopters could definitely be interested.

Sirin Labs Finney

1. 
   

   The Finney phone offers a secure mobile environment for digital assets, called Sirin OS which is based on Android. The software provides a few benefits: integrated cold storage wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications, P2P resource sharing (eg data, connectivity), and computational power. The transactions on the network are fee-less. Sirin OS can be used by another OEMs to integrate these capabilities into their own products (source).-- “Some of the security measures coming with Finney include the behavioral-based intrusion prevention system, hardware switch for wallet protection, encrypted VoIP/text/emails, and three-factor authentication (biometric + lock pattern + behavioral)” (source).

2. It provides users with their “proprietary Token Conversion Service, which enables the seamless and automatic exchange between supported tokens and coins, eliminating the need to visit external exchanges” .

3. 
   

   “The SIRIN Token (SRN) is a utility token, whose purpose is to be used as the cornerstone of the SIRIN LABS ecosystem, which currently consists of the SIRIN OS, FINNEY smartphone, SIRIN Decentralized Application (DApp) Store, and the SIRIN LABS brick-and-mortar stores”.(source)

Notes

• The DApp store should be interchained and allow compatibility with applications build on Ethereum, EOS, NEO, and other platforms.
• Some of the extra security options are quite nifty; multi-biometric identification, eg fingerprint + face unlock + voice(?), is a fascinating development.
• The phone is expensive at $1000, so definitely no mass adoption yet.
• You buy the phone with SRN, limiting accessibility.
• Making Sirin OS open / licensed(?) for other phone manufacturers is a clever business move, Huawei is rumored to have shown interest already.
• The marketing is well done, and the promises are high. The company had an ICO of 120M+, but the smartphone market is getting very crowded and creating a new phone company is tough. I’m cautious whether the company can deliver on all their wonderful promises.

HTC Exodus

This phone aims to provide a secure mobile environment for blockchain transactions and wallets, by introducing a safe, encrypted digital space separate from the main Android OS. With the integration of HTC’s Zion wallet, the phone serves as a hardware wallet.

“The Exodus uses the ARM chip’s secure enclave to build a trust zone that is encrypted and separate from the main Android OS. The phone will come with wallets configured to store currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. This should be much more secure than storing a wallet on your regular phone using an Android app” (source).

Notes

• This model seems and feels mostly like a marketing effort of HTC.
• You can buy this phone only with cryptocurrencies. The price is steep as a pre-order costs 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH = ~$1000 (Oct 2018)
• Limited implementation of blockchain technologies in a phone.

Conclusions

Based on the three examples, it can be stated that blockchain smartphones enable a secure mobile environment for digital wallets and transactions, encrypted communications, as well as additional decentralized services such as cloud storage. Using an optional distributed network for your communications allows an user to bypass centralized telecom providers.

In short:

• Pundi X is making hardware for retail adoption
• Sirin Labs is focusing on software for consumer adoption
• HTC has dipped its toes in blockchain technology with a wallet

By focusing on mobile-first, the illustrated companies are leveraging devices that everyone is pretty much carrying with them at all times (yes, smartphones makes us cyborgs).

Some features I would love to see in the future:

• Multi-step biometric verification (eg. fingerprint + face unlock + voice recognition)
• Full digital identity support (eg integration with Civic, TheKey, Life-ID, and other digital identity solutions)
• The ability to anonymously send all the phone’s connectivity over an onion routing mixnet, such as Loki
• Integration with optional privacy toolkits, such as NIX Platform

The discussed developments improve the user experience of blockchain technologies, which may lead to wider adoption of this innovation.

What is your opinion about these developments?

Where do you think are missed opportunities?

What can be done to facilitate more user-friendly (mobile) experiences to adopt blockchain technologies?

Love to hear your thoughts!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Menno van Ginkel has been studying innovation and exponential technologies since the early 2010s. He is now focused on decentralized networks, blockchain technology and sustainable food.

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Thank you for reading this! Have I forgotten certain information or developments? Or do you have identified flaws or bias in my story and reasoning? Please let me know, I’m open for discussion, feedback and critique.