Blockchain smartphone puts convenience first

The Finney from Sirin Labs aims to bring crypto to the mainstream

Swiss tech company, Sirin Labs, is developing a blockchain phone with help from Foxconn. The $1,000 Finney smartphone has been specifically designed to enable users to securely store and use cryptocurrencies. Finney can also be used as a public Wi-Fi hotspot in return for tokens from other users.

Convenience is at the top of the Finney’s list of tricks though, enabling users to carry out transactions without the need for manually entering addresses or keys. Security is hardware based with the ultimate goal of verifying identification through iris and fingerprint scans.

Explaining the importance of this ease of use, Sirin’s CEO Moshe Hogeg said in an interview, “I want to do something that’s better than the current user experience. There’s no chance my mom can figure out how to use Bitcoin, and my mom is smart.”

License to print cryptocurrency

Sirin’s secondary objective is to license its technology to other phone manufacturers, potentially bringing the retail price of the handset to $200. The company is looking at lower scale manufacturers in the sector and Bloomberg has reported that Sirin is in talks with Huawei. “I think I can take it to a mass market phone in a world where innovation in phones is saturated; it’s dead,” said Hogeg.

Sirin has raised a total of $228M funding to date, including a $158M ICO in December.

The Finney is expected to ship this October through new retail outlets in crypto hotspots such as Vietnam and Turkey, before releasing via mobile carriers.

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