Can blockchain-based phones yield another gold rush? 

If you’re on the market for a new smartphone, you may seem to have diverse options, but this is only an illusion. Your smartphone of choice will run on either iOS or Android. It will most likely be created by one of the handful of manufacturers who have substantial market share, such as Samsung, Apple, or Huawei. And no matter what brand you choose, the specs or your device will fall within a comfortable range of one another. For the average consumer, in short, there is little meaningful difference from smartphone to smartphone: Each can generally do what the others can.

This uniformity does fortunately does not apply to the nascent field of blockchain-based phones. Though there are only a few devices announced in this new category so far, there are already two distinct visions for how the blockchain will change the smartphone. It’s important to pay attention to what cell phone manufacturers do in this space, as these early devices may present significant opportunities for forward-thinking digital entrepreneurs.

The first vision for blockchain-based phones is cryptocurrency-centric. These devices take all the technical challenges of acquiring and spending cryptocurrency and try to simplify it through the smartphone. The first phone in this category is the Finney, created by Swiss company Sirin Labs, most famous for producing a US$16,000 privacy-focused smartphone in 2016. Though the Finney’s default currency is SRN, Sirin’s own token, the phone will allow for cold storage of bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. 

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