A prominent smartphone maker is building a blockchain-based smartphone

• Taiwanese company HTC announced a new phone, based on blockchain technology.
• The new phone will apparently be called Exodus.
  
• The company wants to support the entire blockchain ecosystem through its new projects led by Phil Chen.

Smartphone manufacturer, HTC, is planning to launch a blockchain-based phone in the upcoming months, according to recent reports. The Android-powered smartphone is still under development and will apparently be named “Exodus”. The phone is being designed especially for cryptocurrency and decentralised apps (D-app) users. D-Apps are open sourced applications used for cryptocurrency related activities.

The smartphone will feature a Universal wallet and a built-in secure hardware enclave to support cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications. The company’s blockchain smartphone project is being led by Phil Chen, the man behind HTC’s Vive VR headset. Chen will also be leading future efforts around this device.

In order to facilitate cryptocurrency trading among the Exodus phone users, HTC plans to create a native blockchain network with all the new phones acting as nodes.

Chen said that company would like to support the entire blockchain ecosystem and also, will be announcing many more partnerships in the upcoming months. HTC might even accept cryptocurrency as payment for the phone, but the price is still to be decided.

That said, we don’t yet have word on how much HTC will sell this smartphone at. A startup called Sirin Labs had announced a blockchain smartphone in September last year. While that phone is expected to arrive in October 2018, it had been priced at $1000, which may give us an inkling to what HTC may charge for its device.

Using the blockchain theoretically allows HTC to make the Exodus more secure than regular devices. Although the features offered by Exodus can be integrated into an average smartphone with the help of software. We have to wait for one of these blockchain phones to be available in the market to see if they offer any improvements in the user experience of browsing through the decentralized web and cryptocurrency trading, over a regular smartphone.