Sirin Labs’ Cryptocurrency phone all set to release

By Kapil Gauhar

Swiss-Israeli startup Sirin Labs has now provided a release date for their upcoming Finney phone, which boasts to be the “first blockchain-powered phone” in the world. Named after the late Hal Finney – the first person to make a Bitcoin transaction, and endorsed by Lionel Messi, this phone, at a $1000 price-tag, is indeed the first affordable cryptocurrency phone aimed at the mass market. Sirin had launched a phone earlier, but at a price of $15,000, the Solarin was definitely not a phone meant to be affordable to everyone.

The phone uses a 6 GB RAM and works on a secure Sirin OS which is forked from the Android 8.1 version. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and boasts of an impressive f/1.8 12-megapixel rear camera (complete with low-light imaging and ultra-fast autofocus) paired with an f/2.2 8-megapixel front camera. It comes with features such as a built-in crypto-wallet and a token conversion function that automatically convert tokens without the hassle of an exchange. It gives access to the store of decentralized apps, a multi-layer cybersecurity system, secure exchange access, encrypted communications, and a peer-to-peer sharing ecosystem for transactions, supported by the SRN token.

The biggest USP of the Finney phone is it’s pop-up second screen that fits in behind the phone. The phone itself acts as a cold wallet that keeps cryptocurrencies separate from the rest of the phone and allows transactions to only be sent from a secure and encrypted section of the software. The pop-up screen is used to access this wallet and is sealed from the rest of the phone by a firewall to prevent any hacks.

Manufacturing duties for the Finney have been handed to Foxconn, who has worked with major brands such as Apple, Sony, Nintendo, and Google. The phone shall be available at Sirin stores at Tokyo, London, and the USA.

The company expects to sell over 100,000 units of the Finney, and plans to eventually build a peer-to-peer network using each phone. Having such a network, paired with the hardware and the in-built security measures packed into the phone, mobile trading would indeed become much more seamless.

Last year, Sirin Labs’ crowdsale raised nearly $158 million USD, proving that the device is clearly in demand. If successful, this phone could prove to be the much-needed catalyst for a more easily accessible cryptocurrency market for all.